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TURKEY 


AND 


ITS RESOURCES: 


ITS 

MUNICIPAL ORGANIZATION AND FREE TRADE; 


THE STATE AND PROSPECTS OF 


ENGLISH COMMERCE IN THE EAST, 

THE NEW ADMINISTRATION OF GREECE, 

ITS REVENUE AND NATIONAL POSSESSIONS. 


“ While the West confers on the East the benefit of enlighten¬ 
ment, may it add also that of opinion. Moniteur Ottoman. 


LONDON: 

SAUNDERS AND OTLEY, CONDUIT STREET. 
1833 . 



fU"15 

'.IW . 


LONDON: 

IBOTSON AND PALMER, PRINTERS, SAVOY STREET, STRAND. 




TO HIS MOST GRACIOUS MAJESTY 


WILLIAM THE FOURTH. 


/ol 

SIRE, 

It is with equal pride and satisfaction that 
I avail myself of your Majesty’s most gracious 
permission to dedicate this volume to your 
Majesty. 

I am rejoiced not only at this opportunity 
of rendering a subject's homage to his Sove¬ 
reign, but also of bearing testimony to the 
enlightened and philanthropic interest of the 
Monarch of England, in the regeneration and 
welfare of the country to which it refers. 

I am, 

Sire, 

Your Majesty’s most devoted, 
obliged, and humble servant, 

DAVID URQUHART. 


London , May 20 , 1833 . 



ADVERTISEMENT. 


The lingering adhesion of the parts of Turkey to 
each other, is far more surprising and less easily ac¬ 
counted for, than the dismemberment of that empire. 

The destruction of the Janissaries dissolved its in¬ 
ternal bond of union, relieved it from the pressure 
that had brought it so low, but threw off entirely the 
weight which had steadied so long the jarring ele¬ 
ments of which it is composed. 

Rebellion has been successful, habits of resistance 
have been formed, the hands of the government have 
been weakened, its authority insulted, and it may be 
truly said at this moment, the political organization is 
in a state of paralysis; authority, under whatever 
name it is exercised, whether of the Sultan or Me- 
hemet Ali, is only a form ; and this vast body lies with 
life in each articulation, without corresponding sym¬ 
pathies, without a ruling mind, or the powers of 
common action. 

But even still more alarming than its internal state, 
are its foreign relations. Its political weakness and 



VI 


ADVERTISEMENT. 


administrative corruption would render it a miserable 
antagonist in the field of diplomacy, with the most 
trifling European state; yet, its position implicates 
its interest with those of all the great states of 
Europe, or at least of four out of five. One has for 
its chief end, to create anarchy in Turkey ; one, that 
order and tranquillity should be maintained, but 
under the most despotic form of government ; the 
third endeavours in vain to conciliate a general sys¬ 
tem of support with a particular scheme of dismem¬ 
berment ; and the fourth, which alone has a direct 
and philanthropic interest in preserving its integrity 
and in reforming its abuses, unfortunately, by the 
very absence of a specific and interested object, is 
either unprepared, or interferes when too late. 

It is the deep conviction, that the future condition 
of Turkey hangs at this moment on foreign policy, 
and that to this country will belong, as the event 
will decide, the honour or the reproach, nay, more, 
the profit or the loss, of her preservation or her 
destruction, that induces the writer of the following 
pages, at so critical a moment, to publish his opinions 
on the elements of re-organization which Turkey pos¬ 
sesses. 

It is not merely the circumstances of the last few 
years, that have led Europe to look forward to the 
dissolution of the Turkish empire as an approaching 
and certain event. For a hundred and fifty years 
the same event has been as confidently anticipated; 
may not this historic conviction year by year, dis¬ 
proved in practice, yet perpetuated by education and 


ADVERTISEMENT. 


Vll 


habit, be the offspring of a false estimate of the 
operation of institutions in every respect dissimilar 
to ours; of which we cannot easily judge as a 
whole, and of which the exceptions are more likely 
to strike us than the rule ? The writer thinks that the 
explanation of the permanency of the Mussulman 
power is to be found in a principle of non-inter¬ 
ference in the local administrations of the countries 
ruled. The effects of this non-interference have 
made themselves felt in various ways, which it 
will be the object of the following pages to point 
out. He cannot offer any more solid testimony of 
the sincerity with which he entertains these opinions, 
than the liability to criticism he incurs at a moment 
when facts outstrip arguments, and when the next 
post may bring their practical confutation, if they are 
unfounded. Several months ago it was sufficiently 
evident, that unless the career of Ibrahim Pasha were 
arrested, an occasion would be found or made for an 
interference fatal to Turkey; that catastrophe is still 
impending, and the belief that the backwardness of 
England, at such a moment, can only originate in the 
doubt of the possibility of maintaining a power which 
has no elements of organization within itself—has led 
to the present publication. 

The moral legislation of Turkey, even if the pre¬ 
servation of that empire were beyond the support of 
political influence, is of principal importance in calcu¬ 
lating the new combinations that may arise from its 
ruin, and in judging of the states that have been and 
that may be detached from it. 


ADVERTISEMENT. 


viii 

The higher portions of the administration of Turkey 
have been minutely described, and its errors and vices 
have been a thousand times repeated. That portion 
of it which the present volume is intended to describe, 
has hitherto been unfortunately neglected, and con¬ 
sists of the popular and elementary parts, through the 
intervention of which the revenue is collected; whence 
two principles of vast practical importance have 
sprung—perfect freedom of industry and commerce, 
by the placing of taxation directly on property; and 
a rural municipal organization, which, called into 
existence and maintained in activity for financial pur¬ 
poses, had been the means of dispensing justice, of 
mitigating oppression, and of replacing patriotism by 
local affections and common sympathies. The daily 
increasing attention which is given in this country to 
similar questions, may give more importance to the 
existence of such institutions, and to the operation of 
such principles in Turkey, than they would have ex¬ 
cited even a short time back. 

Finally, the writer has endeavoured to make the 
application of these principles to the state of Greece, 
by pointing out the form of administration which, in 
accordance with her previous state and experience, 
ought to be adopted for that country. 


CONTENTS. 


* CHAPTER I. 

Hopeless state of European Turkey in the commencement of 1831— 
Improvement that followed the subjugation of the Albanians— 
Choice and measures of the Grand Vizir—Reforms in the Ad¬ 
ministration—Parties favouring and opposed to these reforms— 
Causes of the permanency of the Turkish dominion . Page l 


CHAPTER II. 

Municipal organization; its general effects—Appears at first acci¬ 
dental, but is a fundamental principle of Arabic legislation— 
Opinions of a Mussulman on the Turkish and European systems 
of finance—Term, municipal institutions, correspond with free 
states of ancient Greece—Amphyctionic Council—Degraded con¬ 
dition of the Eastern empire—Elevation of the character of the 
Greeks under the Turkish dominion—Its subversion of the pre¬ 
viously existing political institutions—Election of municipal offi¬ 
cers ; their functions—Collection of government taxes; municipal 
taxes—Management of communal debt—Civil functions . 14 


CHAPTER III. 

Nature of the office—Priests, arbitrators and judges, purchase or¬ 
dination-The municipal officers generally the wealthiest indi¬ 
viduals ; their character—Effects of the institution ; has preserved 



X 


CONTENTS. 


the language and creed of the Greeks—Greeks, under all other 
government, have lost both—Greeks, Armenians, Bulgarians, 
&c. possessed of municipal organization; preserve their faith— 
Albanians, Bosniacs, &c. who have no such organization, have 
become Mussulmans ...31 


CHAPTER IV. 

Different aspect of urban municipalities, accounted for by taxation 
in cities being indirect—Commercial muncipalities of the middle 
ages compared with those of Turkey—Ambelakia; its history, 
prosperity, and decay—Had no peculiar advantages—Marine of 
Greece ; its rise—Character of Hydriots—Prosperity of the com¬ 
munities of Magnesia—Turks and Christians living in perfect 
harmony—Mining district of Chacidicy ; its fedral government of 
12 burghs and 360 villages—Supposed origin of this adminis¬ 
tration—Representative Committee—Unanimity of decision—Melt 
Spanish dollars to pass for extracted ore—Comparative decrease of 
the Turkish and Greek populations—Actual indifference of Greeks 
to their municipalities—Confound them with their general po¬ 
litical condition—Understand wrongs, but not rights—Facility 
with which emancipated Greece fell into the representative system 
—Testimony of Capodistrias—General effects of these institu¬ 
tions .-44 


CHAPTER V. 

FINANCES OF TURKEY. 

Surprise of Envoy of Tunis, at Europe’s taxing commerce—Ge¬ 
neral irritation produced by the indirect system in Europe; its 
effect on the fall of Napoleon—All great empires of ancient his¬ 
tory supported by direct taxation—Customs applied by Greeks, 
Romans, and Mussulmans, to making roads, &c.—Ancient 
direct taxes of England; their conversion into indirect—Im¬ 
mense finance bureau at Constantinople — Theoretical compli¬ 
cation and practical simplicity—Heads of taxation—Arabic sys¬ 
tem—Municipal bank and council—Interest of a government 
raising its revenue directly—Effect of direct and indirect taxation 



CONTENTS. 


XI 


on artizans—Direct taxation acts as a loan—Effect of such loan 
on industry—Same effects obtained by postponing the demand— 
Comparison of Turkish and Spanish peasants—General easy cir¬ 
cumstances of Turkish peasants . . . . .79 


CHAPTER VI. 

PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION OF TURKEY. 

Pashas’ authority maintained, by division among the armed race, in 
their service—Character of Albanian and Janissary; their con¬ 
trast and animosity—Subordination of Pashas to the Porte, how 
ensured—Pashas belong to no regular system, attached by no 
interests—Become farmers of revenue, and require surety—That 
surety furnished by Armenian bankers—Secret and incessant 
control of the banker over the purse and the actions of the 
Pasha, who is rendered perfectly dependent on the Armenian— 
Manner in which the banker disguises his profits—Influence 
of Armenians to be corrected by government collectors, and ar¬ 
bitrariness of government agents by organized troops—Pride 
at the root of the ills of Turkey—Requires to be humbled, that 
the government may be preserved—Opinions in Turkey respect¬ 
ing Mahmoud—Effects of his policy—Believed at first Sultan 
mistaken in destroying the aristocracy—Reorganization of Turkey 
can never proceed from the general administration — Costume 
of the Nizzam; judicious applied to the Turks; injudicious 
where applied to the other Mussulmans—Misfortunes of Turkey, 
necessary to her regeneration—Disposition to nationalization by 
race and language—No science or instruction required in a 
Turkish administrator . . . . . . .103 


CHAPTER VII. 

COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY. 

Commercial restrictions of the West prevented in the East by sanc¬ 
tity of hospitality, under the dominion of Saracens and Turks— 
Exchange only right respected; hospitality only obligation ob- 
observed—Freedom of commerce claimed from Princes of central 


Xll 


CONTENTS. 


Africa, because merchants are their guests—Equal rights granted 
by Turkey to the most powerful and the weakest state—Extract 
from Moniteur Ottoman; Turkish declaration of free trade ; vast¬ 
ness of internal traffic—Connexion of commerce and religion; 
trade respected where agriculture and manufactories are not— 
Facilities commerce affords of civilizing the East—Change of 
circumstances and taste—Demand for English cottons greater 
than supply—Why—Effect of our restrictions—Expense of do¬ 
mestic manufacture—-Extent to which the demand may be in¬ 
creased . ..123 


CHAPTER VIII. 

What nations can compete with England—America—Germany— 
Exports and imports—Former prosperity of this traffic; altered 
circumstances—Quarantine, effect of—How enforced—Undersold 
by England—Facility of smuggling English goods into Austria 
and Russia, through European Turkey—Commercial system of 
Russia—Free port of Odessa—Navigation of the Danube—Pros¬ 
pects of opening a free passage to the Euxine—Probable effects 
on commerce and on capital—Opposition of Russia—Proposed 
canal to the Euxine—Rudshuck, the geographical point of union 
of Persian, Russian, Turkish, Austrian, and English commerce 
—Opposition of Austrian interests to the Prussian commercial 
plan.154 


CHAPTER IX. 

Raw materials of Turkey—its mines—Cotton of Egypt, soil of Ma¬ 
cedonia and Thessaly more suited to its culture—Turkish silk, 
its quality, mode of reeling; introduction of Piedmontese mode, 
difference from theirs—Increase of expenses 25 per cent., of pro¬ 
fit 100 per cent.—Great importance to England of opening a new 
supply of fine silk—Capabilities possessed by Turkey—Effect on 
English commerce, of its emancipation from the Company, and 
of Greece from Turkey—Greek caravan trade, its utility to us— 



CONTENTS. 


Xlll 


Turkish monopolies of silk and opium—Reasons for establishment 
—Simplicity of commerce a consequence of free trade—Mode of 
operation—Mercantile journey to China; to England—Speculation 
in silk; in tobacco—Effect of our duties on articles of consump¬ 
tion—Conversation with Governor of Durazzo on the advantage 
of foreign commerce to Turkey—Why the Turkish government 
exacts 3 per cent.; not justified in doing so—Opinion that if the 
Turkish peasant bought his clothing from England, instead of 
manufacturing it, Turkey would be benefited equal to a quarter 
added to its population . . . .175 


CHAPTER X. 

Consular system, difference of the duties of consuls in Turkey and 
in Europe—English commerce extended through the emancipation 
of Greek merchants and the freedom of the port of Malta—Anti¬ 
pathy of Franks and Greeks—Growth of the Frank population is 
the cause of separation between Turks and Europeans—Vice- 
consuls—Consuls should not be allowed to trade—Injurious 
effects of their interference with commerce, the administration of 
local justice, and with political intrigues—Their power; irrespon¬ 
sibility—Their character among the Turks—Delicacy of our po¬ 
sition with regard to Turkey; necessity of a decent demeanour 
towards her—Character qualities, and instruction a consul ought 
to possess—Summary of the prospects of our commercial relations 
with Turkey . . . . . 203 


CHAPTER XL 


RELATIONS OF TURKEY WITH RUSSIA, AUSTRIA, AND FRANCE. 


Russia, since 1830, has lost her influence over the Christian popu¬ 
lations of Turkey—Necessity of adopting a new policy in fur¬ 
therance of her object—Has found it in protecting the Sultan— 
St. Petersburg Gazette indicates Mount Taurus as the limits be¬ 
tween Russia and Egypt—Austria wishes the maintenance of 
Turkey, but not her regeneration—Apprehends the independence 


XIV 


CONTENTS. 


of both Greece and Servia—Struggle between Austria and Russia 
secret but inveterate—Austria expends her energies in repressing 
the disaffection produced by her religious, police, and custom¬ 
house despotisms—Russia foments these divisions to prevent her 
having disposable forces—Necessary union of Russia, Austria, 
and Prussia, to secure their Polish provinces—That necessity ex¬ 
ists no longer—Policy of France in direct opposition to Russia— 
Connexion with Egypt—Acquisitions in Africa to counterbalance 
acquisitions of Russia in Asia and Europe—Places herself on the 
south in the same position as Russia on the north —Pretence for 
attacking Algiers tete de pnnt across the Mediterranean—Mehemet 
Ali having possession of Syria, Mount Taurus, and Acre, becomes 
quite independent of France—Miscalculation of France exposed 
by conduct of Admiral Roussin—Advantages which the supre¬ 
macy of the Porte affords to its tributary states illustrated by the 
late conduct of the Servians and Bulgarians—Christians now 
keep the Albanians in check—Political advantages of the position 
of Constantinople—Opinion of Polybius—Difference between the 
revolt of Mehemet Ali and Greece—Delimitation of Arabic and 
Turkish languages—Our security in our strength favours the pro¬ 
gress of Russia . . . . .218 


CHAPTER XII. 

To understand the state of Greece it is necessary to consider her 
state before the revolution—Comparison of the measures of the 
Grand Vizir in pacifying Roumelie, and of Capo d’lstrias in 
Greece—His introduction of police, customs and farmers of reve¬ 
nue—Popular discontent—Otho may profit by his experience— 
Greeks have no predilections for republican forms—Military, naval, 
judiciary, and civil establishments—Expenditure—Principles of 
the Hellenic monarchy—Impossibility of guarding the coast, and 
reasons for preserving the Mussulman financial system—Danger 
of altering it—The monarchy must rest on the municipalities— 
Napoleon’s opinions of republics of Switzerland—Parcelled affec¬ 
tions of Greeks—Greece must not exact a higher import duty 
than Turkey—Greece forms the link between the commerce of 
the East and the West—Views of Alexander the Great—Con¬ 
clusion. ...... 237 


CONTENTS. XV 

APPENDIX. 

No. I. ...... 267 

II. ...... 270 

III..273 

Comparison of the mode of raising the Revenue in Turkey, 

Rome, England, &c. .... 283 


-f 


MUNICIPALITIES 


OF 

TURKEY. 


CHAPTER I. 

The unfavourable aspect of the Turkish empire at this 
moment, and the triumphant progress of Ibrahim 
Pasha through its finest provinces, but too plausibly 
and too conclusively, as far as they extend, establish 
that the government retains no influence over its pro¬ 
vinces, and that the provinces contain within them¬ 
selves no elements of internal and independent or¬ 
ganization ; but this conclusion holds good in those 
provinces only where the agricultural population is 
Turkish ; namely, Asiatic Turkey; those provinces 
have hitherto been held in subjection by the superior 
energy and warlike disposition of European Turkey, 
and their conquest by Ibrahim Pasha is an additional 
proof of the weakness of the Porte, but is no acces¬ 
sion to Mehemet Aiks power, unless the authority of 
the Porte itself is finally subverted by the indirect 
effects of his rebellion. The institutions which I 
propose to examine are those of the Hellenic and 
Sclavonic races, inhabiting European Turkey. 

I n 1831, after visiting Albania and the greater 
portion of European Turkey, during the struggle be- 

B 




‘i 


MUNICIPALITIES OF TURKEY. 


tween the Porte and the Albanians, I returned to 
England with very little hope of seeing the country 
tranquillized, or the Turkish rule prolonged; but a 
few months afterwards, returning to that country, I 
visited almost every portion of it, and was perfectly 
amazed at the incredible change that had taken place. 
It was then that I set myself seriously to inquire 
how the misfortunes of Turkey might be remedied; 
how the sultan could attach to himself the Greek and 
Raya population, the proofs of which attachment met 
me at every turn. It was then that I clearly saw the 
value of the elementary municipal institutions, and 
the facilities for political reorganization which they 
afforded. 

This was a brilliant epoch in the history of Tur¬ 
key; may it not prove the flicker of an expiring 
light! But for the hopes with which the state of the 
country, after the subjugation of the Albanians, and 
the energies that led to that event, inspired me, I 
should never have deemed the national and local in¬ 
stitutions, which I shall endeavour to describe, of 
sufficient importance to merit attention, at a moment 
when results are to be considered, and events alone 
are to be dealt with. 

After the Persian war ; after the long and exhausting 
struggle with Greece, and the all but fatal blow of 
her independence; after being laid prostrate before 
the Russians at Adrianople—the humbled and unfor¬ 
tunate administration of the Sultan had to make head 
against domestic enemies of a more formidable cha¬ 
racter than ever yet had threatened the throne of the 
successors of the Califs.* The Servians had ob- 

* The dangers of this critical moment were never appreciated in 


MUNICIPALITIES OF TURKEY. 


3 


tained independence, the Bosnians scorned all inter¬ 
course with the Sublime Porte, and the whole of 
Albania was under arms. Albania, on which Turkey 
had depended for the reduction of Greece, now that 
Greece was triumphant, turned its arms against the 
Porte, was supported by the warlike inhabitants of 
the mountain ranges of Roumelie, and was at that 
period joined in hatred to the Sultan, and to the 
new administration, by the Raya Greeks, both agri¬ 
cultural and armed, the first forming the mass of the 
population of Turkey in Europe, the latter composing 
a body, powerful by its numbers and its strong 
positions, and commanding the whole of the passes 
that surrounded Thessaly and Macedonia. Though 
the Albanians dreaded the Nizzam, the Rayas had not 
yet felt the good effects of the system, and had there¬ 
fore no reason to look more favourably than hereto¬ 
fore on the Porte, which has so long to them been an 
object of terror and of hatred. 


Europe; few persons in Europe are sufficiently well acquainted with 
Turkey to see in the revolt of Albania, with Greece and Servia in¬ 
dependent on either side, any thing more alarming than in a revolt 
of Zebecs or Metualis. The importance of Albania is strikingly 
illustrated by the events of the Egyptian rebellion. The regulars 
of Ibrahim positively owed the character which enabled him to 
push his daring invasion through Asia Minor, to being resisted by 
the hordes of Hussein Pasha. What had the sultan to oppose to 
him ? Only the as yet scarcely subdued Albanians. True, they 
did not muster more than 6000 men in the army of the grand vizir, 
but they were its nucleus and its strength. If the rash impetuosity 
of the grand vizir gave the victory unto the hands of the retiring 
Ibrahim, still is it not the fault of the Albanians if Ibrahim was 
not expelled from Anatoly. The whole dependence of the empire 
was onThe Albanians. 

B 2 


4 


MUNICIPALITIES OF TURKEY. 


The military strength of Turkey in Europe; the 
Albanians, the industrious population ; the Rayas ; 
the Greek Armatoles, and the Turkish proprietors, 
were therefore at this moment all opposed to the new 
administration. The conservative party were op¬ 
posed to the Sultan on account of his reforms, the 
others would not support him unless he granted fur¬ 
ther reforms ; but their opinions were far from being 
decided or their objects fixed, because they were not 
certain of the future intentions of the government, 
because they had no earnest of the effectiveness of 
that organization which the other party so much 
dreaded. The Christians had enabled the Sultan to 
triumph over Ali Pasha, but ten years of subsequent 
anarchy had given them abundant reason to regret 
the election they had then made. At the moment to 
which I allude, had another Ali Pasha existed in Al¬ 
bania, I am convinced that every class of the popula¬ 
tion, every portion of Turkey in Europe, would 
eagerly have submitted to his authority. Thus the 
moral strength of the nation remained for the moment 
neutralized, dreading on the one hand, the anarchy of 
the Albanians, and doubting on the other, the inten¬ 
tions of the government. The decision taken in this 
crisis by the Sultan, to break through old routine and 
prejudice, to declare equal rights to Raya and Mus¬ 
sulman, and the election of the talented individual 
who has] pacified Roumelie, subjugated Albania, at¬ 
tached the Raya population to the cause of the Sul¬ 
tan—saved the empire, or preserved to the Porte 
the allegiancejof* those provinces, by granting to them 
a portion of the demanded reform which the Sultan 
isjsupposed in Europe to be forcing on his people. 


MUNICIPALITIES OF TURKEY'. 


5 


The grand vizir, a man of strong and original 
mind, and unconnected with the intrigues of the 
Porte, was alone capable of carrying such a reform 
into execution; he was invested with all civil and 
military authority in Turkey in Europe, without limi¬ 
tation of power or time. Never had such authority 
been entrusted to a Turkish satrap; never had there 
been greater occasion for the interposition of a dic¬ 
tator’s arm, and certainly the choice could not have 
fallen on an abler man. From Adrianople he ad¬ 
vanced, in the early part of 1830, westward, into 
the heart of the disaffected country. With a handful 
of troops he had to rescue from the Albanians the 
territory they held, and were fast depopulating; he 
had to overawe the growing disaffection of the Turks, 
and, above all, he had to conciliate the Greeks, who 
were assembling in numerous and armed bodies, ex¬ 
asperated on one hand, by the oppression under which 
they laboured, and encouraged on the other, by the 
example of independent Greece. He clearly under¬ 
stood that the campaign he was undertaking was an 
administrative rather than a military one, and that his 
success depended rather on the friends he could con¬ 
ciliate to his master by his policy, than the enemies 
he could subdue by his arms. As far as I could 
judge from his own opinions, from the opinions of his 
favourites, and from his first measures in reorganiz¬ 
ing the province of Monastir, his plan was as fol¬ 
lows :— # 

* I mention here only the financial and administrative reforms; 
but there are others of a moral nature, perhaps equally important, 
which in the commencement of this year (1832) I observed with no 
less gratification than surprise in passing through Turkey in Europe. 


6 


MUNICIPALITIES OF TURKEY. 


1st, To substitute for all exactions, legal and ille¬ 
gal, a property tax, to be assessed by their own mu¬ 
nicipal authorities, on land,houses, shops, and yokes of 
oxen. The amount was greatly to exceed the sum for¬ 
merly paid to government, but on this consideration 
they were relieved from the robbery of all classes of 
government officers, and from the grievous oppression 
of forced labour, and conack, that is, furnishing 
officers, soldiers, and Turks in general, with lodging 


The Greeks were allowed to wear turbans, yellow slippers, and 
generally any dress and any colours they chose. This may appear 
a mere trifle, but it is far from being so. The marks of distinction 
between Greek or Christian and Turk, are dress, name, and mode of 
salutation ; the most important, however, is dress; every one must 
have felt this who for a day has worn the two costumes in Turkey. 
When these distinctions are no longer matters of right and law, 
they will fall into disuse ; nor would they be considered, as hereto¬ 
fore, even if preserved, badges of oppression or slavery. The two 
people will, I doubt not, in time amalgamate, if nothing interferes from 
without to disturb the progress commenced; with the acuteness of 
the climate (I know not what word to employ to designate the pecu¬ 
liar intelligence of these races) they even themselves anticipate this 
event. I recollect a Vlach saying to me at Monastir—“If the grand 
vizir lives ten years longer we shall sup with the Turks in Lent, 
and they will dine with us in Ramazan.” At the time to which I 
allude, in approaching Constantinople, I met several deputies re¬ 
turning with firmans for the erection of churches. The difficulties 
thrown in the way of the building and repairing of churches by the 
Turks are well known, as also the heart-burnings thereby caused to 
the Greeks. Now, not only was permission freely granted, but the 
grand vizir himself subscribed 80,000 piastres towards the erection 
of one at Monastir, which was erected of solid stone masonry, in an 
incredibly short period, the whole Greek population contributing 
labour as well as money, and was completed by the end of 1831. 
The Turks asked the Greeks, “ Why they had not added four 
minarets to it.” How much meaning lies in this taunt! 


MUNICIPALITIES OF TURKEY. 


7 


and board; all servants of the government were 
henceforward to be paid by the treasury, and were 
to provide for themselves ; and all expenses on go¬ 
vernment account to be defrayed by government. I 
am not prepared to say to what extent this arrange¬ 
ment would improve the revenue, or relieve the people 
throughout Roumelie, but I am not, I think, beyond 
the mark when I say, that with one season of tran¬ 
quillity the revenues might be quadrupled, and yet the 
people remain the most lightly taxed of Europe. 
2nd. The Greek capitani, the Albanian derven-agas 
guards of the mountains, and no better than banditti 
themselves, and the Turkish pashas, beys, ayans, 
musselims, vaivodes, agas, zabitis, with their train 
of chaoushes, cavashes, grarnatiki, Jew and Arme¬ 
nian brokers and sarafs, were to be swept away, to 
be replaced by a military police, composed of regular 
officers, as military commandants, and by treasurers, 
whose only duty would be to receive the taxes col¬ 
lected by the municipal officers. I must entreat 
the most particular attention to this all-important 
consideration, which is the key both to the present 
state and future prospects of Turkey, that in sweeping 
away these functionaries, you burst asunder no ties, 
you destroy no institutions, you injure no interests, 
you leave no blank to be filled up. There is cen¬ 
tralisation of power in Turkey, but not of administra¬ 
tion. The population administers itself— has recourse 
to Turkish law or authority in no case, except through 
violence; each community apportions its own bur¬ 
thens, collects its own taxes, and whether these taxes 
are paid into the hands of a provincial collector, or 
extorted by swarms of locust functionaries, makes 


8 


MUNICIPALITIES OF TURKEY. 


not the slightest difference in the relations in which 
the provinces stand to the Porte, though it makes the 
difference of prosperity or misery to the people—of 
strength or weakness to the government. Instead of 
these swarms of functionaries, the passes and prin¬ 
cipal villages were to be occupied by small detachments 
of regular troops, having fixed pay, and restrained 
from demanding a single para from the inhabitants, 
who were themselves to collect their own taxes, and 
pay them to the chief collector of the province. The 
Pashas were also to be paid, by the administration, a 
regular salary, and placed on the footing of the 
prefects of France, such as those prefects were before 
their functions extended beyond civil and correctional 
police. In fact, the functions of the executive 
would have been restricted to the maintenance of 
police; no difficult matter in a country possessing 
the ample means of employment, and the frugal and 
industrious habits of Turkey. Here moral sanction 
renders even constables and sheriff's officers unne¬ 
cessary; a man cited before a judge is compelled by 
opinion* even to hasten to attend. The Rayas^ sub- 

* The Turkish word, which we would render in English, opinion, 
chatir, is most expressive and comprehensive ; it signifies, in its 
first intention, memory, but expresses also favour, good-will, and 
character; the employment of this word in a sense equivalent to our 
vague term opinion, shows the great respect paid to opinion. On 
political questions no complications of interests confuse public 
opinion ; so that with respect either to individual character or 
public acts, opinion may be expressed with more or less boldness, 
but it is decided and universal. They say, “ I will do this on 
account of my opinion,” not on account of the opinion of others,— 
thus marking a necessary connexion between conduct and character. 
The Greeks have adopted the word, and have combined it both in 


MUNICIPALITIES OP TURKEY. 


9 


mit their disputes and differences to their priests, 
whose decisions are not the less final because destitute 
of legal validity. In the communities the reciprocity 
of responsibility gives public opinion the right of cen¬ 
sorship—a right which is most despotically exercised. 
Crimes are unheard of, save amongst those whose 
office is the preservation of order; and the most re¬ 
markable industry and frugality, I will not say cha¬ 
racterize the body of the nation, but form the essen¬ 
tial features of each individual disposition. # 

This plan for the reorganization of the administra¬ 
tion, so admirably simple, so practicable, so advan¬ 
tageous to the government and to the people, is now 
placed beyond all danger as to its ultimate success, 
by the overthrow in the provinces of the bodies in¬ 
terested in the continuance of misrule; it may be 
more or less retarded by the intrigues of the Porte 
itself, or by the failure of the organization of the 
new troops, on which it depends. 

The class of men interested in the old system are 
now, as a faction at least, annihilated; the chief organi¬ 
zation expired with the Janissaries, the subjugation of 


sound and sense with their own soft and poetic x a i° l c> by the trans¬ 
position of the P and T in the oblique cases. The ancients used it 
precisely in the same sense ; ruiv M enarjvtiov yapin. —Thucyd. b. 
iii. c. 95; would be expressed in Romaic, <ha to x uT *P l r ^ y Mecr- 
crrjviiov. 

* Turkey is so full of contradictions that it is utterly impossible 
to come to one single decision without neglecting contradictory facts. 
Lest the truth of the above observation should be contradicted by 
partial experience, I must observe, that the population I allude to is 
that of the agricultural ray as of Roumelie, excepting some of the 
duller Sclavonic tribes to the north, the Armat.oles to the south, and 
the generality of those who wear pistols in their belts. 


10 


MUNICIPALITIES OF TURKEY. 


the Albanians, and their conversion, which sooner or 
later must happen, into regular soldiers, will strengthen 
the hands of the Porte, whose most dangerous enemy 
Albania has been for the last few years, because most 
essential to its support. As to the new troops, their 
discipline and subordination is certainly superior to 
what could reasonably be expected from them, and 
they seem to have realized the hopes of their founders 
in the situations in which they have hitherto been 
placed. # I speak not in a military point of view, but 
with regard to the more important considerations of 
the maintenance of order, and the organization of 
a Mussulman party opposed to Janissaries and Alba¬ 
nians, and dependent on the executive, which itself 
must now become directly or indirectly dependent on 
general prosperity and public opinion for its pecu¬ 
niary resources, and consequently for its army.-J- 

* In the two actions at Perlipe, and at the Dervends, between 
that place and Kiupreli, the conduct of these troops surpassed every 
expectation, and gave them a pride in their uniform, and an esprit 
de corps, which will greatly assist their organization, and which are 
an earnest of future success. The Sadrazem was driven by despair 
to seek these two engagements, in which between five and six thou¬ 
sands of the hitherto despised Nizzam completely routed and dis¬ 
persed, with very trifling loss, between twenty and thirty thousand, 
of not only the most warlike troops of the empire, but of those who 
had made a monopoly of military service, and who exist by that 
service alone, as their barren mountains would not supply in a year 
the consumption of three months, for their own population. 

+ “ A state is prosperous when justice is administered impartially ; 
and when the police is good. (One of our great law authorities 
has said, the whole fabric of government was only a frame for the 
twelve judges.) A king cannot administer justice without soldiers; 
soldiers cannot be procured without money; money can only be 
procured if the country flourishes; it can only flourish by good 


MUNICIPALITIES OF TURKEY. 


U 


The crimes of the Janissaries gave the sultan the 
power to destroy them—so the crimes of the Alba¬ 
nians enabled the grand vizir, with very inadequate 
military means, to break the strength and humble the 
pride of these haughty mountaineers; but through 
what agency, save the zealous co-operation of the 
mass of the people, which by acts expressed the 
public opinion that had not yet found a tongue—the 
Greeks, by their ready and voluntary contributions of 
money and provisions, as well as by their arms, 
enabled the grand vizir to beat the Albanians, Se- 
lectar Poda, and the Pasha of Scodra. The Turkish 
proprietors had been taught by misfortune, that their 
interests were indissolubly connected with those of 
the cultivators of their lands. The Greeks, # gaining 
strength and confidence by the schisms and disasters 
of the Turks, by the weakness of the government, 
from which the veil of mysterious power had now 
been rent, had actively contributed to the establish¬ 
ment of the sultan’s authority, and naturally claimed 
the consideration and influence due to a body who 
alone possessed, in their wealth and industry, the means 
of supporting a government which their arms-f- had 
partly caused to triumph. 


government, and consequently a king can only reign by justice.” 
— The Principles of Wisdom concerning the Art of Government, by 
Ah. Thessar. Translation of Garcia de Tassy. 

* Of course it will be understood that these are the Raya Greeks, 
or the subjects of the Porte. In speaking of the inhabitants of in¬ 
dependent Greece I have either used the epithet “free,” or given 
them the name they assume—“Hellenes/’ 

f At the last decisive action of the Dervends, between Perlipe 
and Iviupreli, a daring exploit of three hundred Christians from 


12 


MUNICIPALITIES OF TURKEY. 


All the causes of a nation’s destruction are in active 
operation in Turkey. Year after year, for a couple 
of centuries, have devastation and scenes of blood¬ 
shed and desolation succeeded to each other, and 
year after year has been anticipated the approaching 
extinction of European commerce and the immediate 
exhaustion of every source of wealth; yet Turkey 
still exists, nay, furnishes food for fresh destruction; 
her commerce with Europe continues to move, nay, is 
hourly increasing. Whence are to be deduced effects 
so little analogous with the apparent causes? 1st, 
From the absence of many of the evils that accompany 
the conditional despotism of European governments, 
and 2dly, from the existence of a municipal organiza¬ 
tion. 

The oppression of Turkey is direct and apparent, 
but so is taxation. The people know the full extent 
of their wrongs, and also the causes whence they 
flow, and the remedies of which they are susceptible. 
Their political intelligence and acuteness, indeed, 
strongly contrasts with the ignorance and indifference 
on administrative questions of the people of Europe; 
only so much is abstracted from their pockets as goes 
into those of their masters ; tyranny is severe and 
irresistible, but it is neither constant nor systematic; 
there are neither privileged classes* nor privileged 


Chimara turned the fate of the day in favour of the grand vizir, and 
preserved for a while the Ottoman Empire. Mehemet Reschid pro¬ 
mised them whatever boon they chose to ask for this signal service. 
Their noble request was, that a Greek village, close by Kiupreli, 
should be spared in the sack of the town. 

* It will be objected to this, that the so called privileges of the 
Turks themselves are the most crying abuse, and the distinctive 


MUNICIPALITIES OF TURKEY. 


13 


interests; they know no vexations of spies, police 
agents, informers, censors, tax-gatherers, (internal,) 
custom-house officers, or the other innumerable means 
employed to disguise taxation, by governments less 
frankly despotic than Turkey. On the other hand, they 
join fraternally to support their common lot and common 
burdens; and the close and intimate union of men and 
interests, created by direct taxation, and strengthened 
by the moral sanction of municipal institutions, en¬ 
ables them to support, and even to gain strength in 
supporting, a pressure which otherwise must have 
annihilated them long ago. 

feature of Turkey ; but the Turks have been the governing 1 body, 
as such were distinct from the mass of the population engaged in 
industrious pursuits, agriculture, and commerce, and were the agents 
of the oppression, as an antidote to which, I mention this freedom 
of industry and equality of rights among the oppressed. The op¬ 
pression of the Turks is not privilege, it is open and direct robbery ; 
besides it was not the government that circumscribed rights and 
privileges within the pale of certain interests, or the inheritances of 
certain families; the excluded were excluded of their own free will, 
and by their adherence to the creed of their fathers. No doubt 
this reflection often gave them encouragement and strength in mo¬ 
ments of suffering and temptation, and fortified the moral feeling in 
which it originated. The weaker spirits found refuge in Islamism 
from the wrongs they could not bear ; the bolder, freedom from the 
yoke they could not brook ; and the national character maintained 
its uniformity of passive resistance to oppression, and secret con¬ 
tempt for its oppressors. 


14 


CHAPTER II. 


The elevation of the Greeks to political importance 
in the Turkish empire; the facilities for reorganization 
which the country possesses ; the moral character and 
industry of the population; the preservation of their 
distinctive features and creeds, and the preservation 
of the Turkish empire itself, seem to me to be all of 
them effects of the local municipal institutions. This 
opinion has been very deliberately and cautiously 
adopted, it was not pre-conceived, or taken up even 
with a knowledge of the existence of similar institu¬ 
tions throughout the greater portion of the east, it 
was the result of observation in detail under varying 
circumstances and at different periods ; and as the 
subject acquired importance in my own eyes, my 
scepticism increased with my astonishment, that causes 
so active and universal should have so completely 
escaped observation. 

When I first observed the effects of this local 
organization, and the financial system depending on 
it, I thought I had discovered the secret of the per- 
manancy of the Turkish empire, in effects which had 
accidentally grown out of its own anarchy and op¬ 
pression, as necessary, though accidental compensa¬ 
tions, which ever accompany permanent wrong, to 


MUNICIPALITIES OF TURKEY. 


15 


prevent it from exhausting and destroying the sub¬ 
stance on which it feeds: but it was with no less 
gratification than surprise, that I found these institu¬ 
tions, and that financial system, not only known and 
appreciated by enlightened Mussulmans, but even ve¬ 
nerated as the fundamental principles of Arabic legis¬ 
lation, and handed down as the constitutional and 
traditional doctrines of Islamism ; but above all was 
I struck with their importance, when I saw Turks, 
who had visited Europe, return to their own coun¬ 
try, detesting more than ever the practical abuses of 
their own government, but attached more than ever 
to these its fundamental principles. 

In every branch of science in which Europe de¬ 
sired to be instructed, Arabia became her mistress; 
but there were other questions in which interests, not 
arguments, prevailed; in these, no instructions were 
sought; and we remain up to this day ignorantly 
sceptical of the existence of such a science among the 
Arabs, as that of government. Yet in this, as in the 
other sciences, Arabia brought her principles to the 
test of experiment,* and reared and consolidated the 
most stupendous fabric of government that the world 
has ever beheld. 

I have observed, in support of the importance of 
municipal institutions, that enlightened Mussulmans, 
who have visited Europe, return more than ever 

* The Arab philosophers were men who combined with an acute¬ 
ness and activity of mind that has never been surpassed, all the 
knowledge that industry could attain. They were superior to the 
Greeks by combining logic and metaphysics with experimental phi¬ 
losophy.— Turner's History of England during the Middle Ages. 


16 


MUNICIPALITIES OF TURKEY". 


attached to the principles of Arabic legislation. It 
may be interesting to know, whether or not the 
condemnation here implied of our system springs 
from prejudice. If their objections arose from pre¬ 
judice, practice and customs would be the objects 
of their aversion; but no, it is to our principles 
they object—to our principles of finance and of 
commercial legislation. Freedom of commerce and 
of industry, is not, indeed, with them an object of 
independent inquiry; it is a consequence which flows 
from, and which never can be separated from, direct 
taxation. I do not mean freedom of commerce, while 
taxed for revenue, from prohibitions and protecting 
and discriminating duties, but that freedom which 
facilitates the exchange of commodities with the view 
of enhancing the value of land and property from 
which their revenue is drawn; not admitting the bur¬ 
dening of the exchange of commodities for the sake 
of revenue, because they hold direct taxation to be 
the least onerous, the easiest and the cheapest mode 
of collecting it. These principles have been pre¬ 
served in practice, not by the solicitude, but by the 
absoluteness of eastern governments, which have 
always been too strong to require to disguise their 
imposts; and therefore the evils of indirect taxation, 
fluctuations, gluts, over-trading, bankruptcies, fic¬ 
titious wealth, unwholesome industry, excessive 
prices of the necessaries of life, pauperism, a blood¬ 
stained code for the punishment of factitious crimes, 
which never have existed in Turkey, are arguments 
for the direct and Arabic system which a Mussulman 
is only made acquainted with by visiting Europe. 


MUNICIPALITIES OF TURKEY. 


17 


The connexion between this and the municipal insti¬ 
tutions is, that direct taxation can only be beneficially 
applied by means of municipal institutions. 

By the term municipal, I mean to designate the 
administration which the inhabitants of any village, 
burg, or section, of the country establish for the ma¬ 
nagement of their local affairs, as distinguished from, 
and independent of, the political government. The 
Turks destroyed the administration, institutions, cus¬ 
toms, and ranks, that existed under the eastern 
empire ; but imposed on their tributaries neither new 
administrative forms, nor their own civil code, which 
was their religious text. So independent of the 
Mussulman code were the institutions the rayas 
adopted, that wherever the country has flourished, it 
has been severed from all political connexion with the 
Porte. 1 might even go further and say, that pros¬ 
perity is invariably the consequence of the neglect 
of the central administration ; but such a considera¬ 
tion as this is most effective when presented in the 
simplest manner. 

I will not attempt to trace these bodies to the free 
states and village republics of ancient times; but 
I must observe, that though the external forms of 
the two systems were perfectly similar, the principle 
was wholly different. The ancient cities or villages, 
whether avroKparopsiQ or avTovofxoi , were insulated 
and independent bodies of masters and slaves. 
These communities are composed of individuals who, 
whatever is their political state, are among them¬ 
selves perfectly equal. But still this inquiry affords 
some interesting coincidences with the administrative 
maxims and practice of antiquity ; the municipal offi- 

c 


18 


MUNICIPALITIES OF TURKEY. 


cers are now commonly elected in the churches, the 
tKicXriGiai, the distinctive appellation of the ancient 
popular assembly. The administration is confided to 
two classes of men; representatives, administering the 
public interests, and priests, judges in private matters. 
Were not these, as clearly as we can make them out, 
the characters of the double deputies composing the 
Amphictyonic council ? * The cities of ancient Greece, 
as now, were independent, yet uniform ; their relations 
with the leagues or commanding states, which might 
stand for general governments, resemble those of the 
Greeks with the Turkish government at the present 
day, and were more or less of a diplomatic character. 
But a more extraordinary coincidence than all these 
is to be found between a federal community of villages 
in Macedonia, which I shall have to describe, and the 
Amphictyonic body itself, especially when that body 
was presided by the representative of the king of 
Macedon, the prototype of the sultan. The council 
of this community, under the superintendence of a 
commissioner from Constantinople, was composed of 
the two classes of deputies corresponding with the 
Pylagori and Hieromnemons; the same principle of 
representation is apparent in both bodies, convened 
to take, in common, measures on questions which had 
been previously discussed in each community.j- The 

* The resemblance in every point is complete. There were 
several pylagori; there was but one hieromnemon. There were 
several demogerontes; only one papas. The pylagori were popu¬ 
larly elected; the hieromnemon chosen by lot. The primates are 
popularly elected; the papas by purchase. 

f Eschines, in his oration against Chesiphon, mentions, on his 
return with other deputies from the Amphictyonic assembly, that they 


MUNICIPALITIES OF TURKEY. 


19 


members were not legislators assembled for delibera¬ 
tion, but ministers for conference. The same una¬ 
nimity was required in their decisions; and, strange 
to say, the modern federation was composed,, like 
the ancient, of twelve distinct bodies. But this 
inquiry, however curious or interesting, is foreign to 
my present object—the investigation of the political 
elements of Turkey, in as far as that investigation 
may prove of utility, by explaining the means which 
exist for the regeneration of that most important 
country. 

The rayas owe these institutions to the Turkish 
dominion. Under the weak and despicable eastern 
empire, the mass of the people was reduced to the 
lowest state of moral and political depravity. A 
corrupt aristocracy, a tyrannical and innumerable 
clergy, the oppression of perverted law, the exactions 
of a despicable government, and still more, its mono¬ 
polies, its fiscality, its armies of tax and custom col¬ 
lectors, left the degraded people neither rights nor 
institutions, neither chance of amelioration nor hope 
of redress. It is therefore not to be wondered at, if 
they fled from the tax-gatherer to the barbarians, or if, 
at a later period, they were glad to exchange both the 
precarious sway of these conflicting tribes, and even 
the more fell dominion of their own weak empire, for 
the powerful protection of the Ottoman dominion, 
whose rule must have been, indeed, a happy change 


rendered an account of their mission, first to the senate, then to the 
people ; and having presented their reports, and deposited the de¬ 
crees that had been passed, the senate and the people unanimously 
approved of all they had done, and ratified their acts. 

C 2 


20 


MUNICIPALITIES OF TURKEY. 


for the Greeks, when it was sought by the persecuted 
of Europe, and became the refuge of the Jews of 
Spain, and of the Protestants of Hungary. 

The establishment of the Turkish dominion swept 
away all privileges, all monopolies; but it swept 
away too, all disabilities ; if it destroyed pre-eminence 
of caste, it destroyed invidious exclusions. It re¬ 
formed the corrupt and overgrown hierarchy, abo¬ 
lished oppressive influences, and reduced the nation 
to a state of perfect equality, by depriving it of all 
rights and distinctions, so that in industry alone this 
hitherto effeminate people were reduced to seek merit 
and distinction, as well as the means of existence; 
and industry, though oppressed by anarchy in Turkey, 
has never been repressed by law. 

Against the resistance or rebellion of such a people, 
the Turkish government needed no measures of pre¬ 
caution. As a conquering power, it knew its own 
force and the weakness of its subjects; and in exact¬ 
ing from them what may be more properly termed 
tribute than revenue, occult, or disguised modes of 
taxation, would have been superfluous. Each district 
was required to furnish a fixed sum, and to the 
Greeks themselves was left the care of distributing 
the burthens and collecting the amount. This sum 
was not fixed arbitrarily, however arbitrarily it may 
have been subsequently exacted; and though con¬ 
tempt for the Greeks, and national indolence, may 
alone have been sufficient motives for leaving the 
Greeks to their own government, yet the strict jus¬ 
tice that seems to have dictated the first assessments 
of all species of taxes and property, may lead us to 
infer, that the legislative doctrines of the Arabs, and 


MUNICIPALITIES OF TURKEY. 


21 


the nomade habits of the Turks, essentially contri¬ 
buted to the establishment of that simple form of 
administration— direct taxation under the manage¬ 
ment of municipal institutions, which would seem, 
judging by the experience to Turkey, to have the 
property of rendering a people indestructible.* 

* The political state ot the Mahometan possessions in India most 
satisfactorily support the opinions I here venture to express respect¬ 
ing the state of Turkey; indeed Turkey and India are countries 
which mutually elucidate each other, and enable us, even by a com¬ 
parison of their differences, to understand and appreciate a social 
and political condition so perfectly antithetical to that of Europe. 
Colonel Briggs, in his work on the land tax of India, expresses 
himself as follows on the subject in question: — 

“ It has been already shown that each Hindoo village had its dis¬ 
tinct municipality, and that over a certain number of villages, or dis¬ 
trict, was an hereditary chief and accountant, both possessing great 
local influence and authority, and certain territorial domains or 
estates. The Mahomedans early saw the policy of not disturbing 
an institution so complete, and they availed themselves of the local 
influence of these officers to reconcile their subjects to their rule. 
* * * From the existence of these local Hindoo chiefs at the end of 
six centuries in all countries conquered by the Mahomedans, it is 
fair to conclude that they were cherished, and maintained with great 
attention as the key-stone of their civil government. While the ad¬ 
ministration of the police, and the collection of the revenues, were 
left in the hands of these local chiefs, every part of the new territory 
was retained under military occupation by an officer of rank, and a 
considerable body of Mahomedan soldiers. * * * * In examining 
the details of Mahomedan history, which has been minute in record¬ 
ing the rise and progress of all these kingdoms, we no where dis¬ 
cover any attempt to alter the system originally adopted. The minis¬ 
ters, the nobles, and the military chiefs, all bear Mahomedan names 
and titles, but no account is given of the Hindoo institutions being 
subverted, or Mahomedan officers being employed in the minor de¬ 
tails of the civil administration. 

“ It would appear from this that the Moslems, so far from imposing 


22 


MUNICIPALITIES OF TURKEY. 


Under an oppression, which has been considered in 
Europe as degrading as it is lawless, the condition of 
the ray as seems gradually to have improved. The 
Greeks, when a sovereign people, had entirely lost the 
spirit of enterprise and of commerce; as slaves, they 
have recovered that spirit, and have carried commer¬ 
cial enterprise to a degree of prosperity, scarcely 
paralleled under equally unfavourable circumstances 
in the history of the most commercial nations. Under 
the eastern empire, neglected literature had taken 
refuge in the libraries of Constantinople and the 
cloisters of Athos, now every village of ancient and 
modern Greece has its schools. Instead of the good 
qualities of the people being lost by the oppression 
they have suffered, oppression has purified and re¬ 
newed the national character; I speak, of course, of 
the character of the mass of the nation, not of the 
censals and courtiers of Smyrna, the dragomans of 
Constantinople, the primates of the commercial towns, 
or, in general, of those whose industry was rendered 
chicane, by their coming in individual contact with 
Turks or Europeans.* 


their own laws upon their subjects, treated the customs of the latter 
with the utmost respect; and that they did so because experience 
taught them that their own interests were advanced by a line of 
policy so prudent.” 

* It would indeed be a herculean task to refute or to notice all 
the absurdities that have been disseminated respecting Greece, and 
the character of the people. I should have deemed the common no¬ 
tion of the Greek character having degenerated under the Turkish 
yoke, a prejudice in complete contradiction with the facts of the case, 
and totally unworthy of notice, had I not found it repeated in Mr. 
Gordon’s work on the Greek Revolution. It is painful to disagree 
with such an authority. I extract the passage to which I allude : 


MUNICIPALITIES OF TURKEY. 


23 


The collection of tribute was the origin, and has 
ever continued to be the bond and end, of the muni¬ 
cipal bodies, and led to their uniform establishment 
throughout the country, wherever it submitted uncon¬ 
ditionally. The same could not be said of districts that 
had made terms ; for there some chief would retain his 
authority—so me former system of administration would 
linger—the annihilation of privileges must prepare 
the soil for the equal layers of this political structure, 
which is therefore not to be expected, and as we 
shall presently see, is not to be found, in districts where 
resistance had been successfully prolonged. In those 
districts which had unconditionally submitted, the 
inhabitants were compelled to select from their own 
body the fittest persons for filling the office of asses¬ 
sors, collectors, and cashiers; and as under the 
common yoke there was no privileged order that had 
influence enough to restrict these offices to itself, so 
was there no degraded class that would suffer itself 

“ Those who are best acquainted with the Greeks, cannot fail to 
remark the numerous and striking' features of resemblance that con¬ 
nect them with their ancestors. They have the same ingenious aud 
active bent of mind, joined to a thirst of knowledge and improve¬ 
ment, the same emulation in their pursuits, love of novelty and 
adventure, vanity and loquacity, restless ambition and subtlety. The 
Grecian character was, however, so long tried in the furnace of mis¬ 
fortune, that the sterling metal had nearly evaporated, and little but 
dross remained; having obliterated whatever was laudable in the 
institutions of their forefathers, their recent masters had taught them 
only evil.” Perhaps had the metaphor been more correct the appli¬ 
cation would have been more just. I should have thought that the 
furnace would have thrown oil’ the lighter and incongruous particles, 
and have left the metal free—that the love of novelty—the vanity 
and restlessness would have escaped, leaving behind activity of mind, 
and thirst of knowledge, and improvement. 


24 


MUNICIPALITIES OF TURKEY. 


to be excluded from an equal voice in their common 
concerns; the absence of exclusiveness and restriction 
left no grounds for strife, and prevented the necessity 
of defining the rights of suffrage, or of regulating the 
forms of election. There were no discordant interests 
to be consulted, because the Turkish system of direct 
taxation prevents what we consider opposing in¬ 
terests from being in the slightest degree placed 
in opposition to each other; so that the only question 
at issue was, the personal merit and character of the 
individuals to be chosen. Public opinion was at 
once manifested through the public voice, and elec¬ 
tions in which every individual was equally interested, 
were generally, after a year’s reflection, concluded in 
a few minutes, without agitation, and without for¬ 
mality. 

The extreme simplicity of this system affords no 
detail to which attention can be called, or on which it 
can be fixed. Little would the passing stranger, 
seeing this unpretending ceremony hurried over in 
the church after the service, or under the village tree, 
think it possible to ascribe to the occult, but all-per¬ 
vading influence of these elections, and the social 
condition and moral character which depend upon 
them, consequences so vast and important. The 
elders, thus elected, hold their offices for a year; but 
the same want of formality observable in the election, 
is also to be found in their functions, and in their 
term of office. The same individuals may remain in 
office for years, or even for life, without re-election ; 
but if they lose public confidence, no returning day 
of election is waited for—they are immediately ejected, 
and successors appointed to them, and this very faci- 


MUNICIPALITIES OF TURKEY. 


25 


lity of resuming the trust has the effect of prolonging 
the term of office. 

Their functions are numerous and important; the 
principal are these:—The apportioning the tax im¬ 
posed upon the whole community to each indi¬ 
vidual according to his property. They have there¬ 
fore to be most accurately acquainted with the 
amount of the property of the whole community, 
and of the property of each member of it ; they must 
ascertain each man’s means of livelihood, his profits, 
and his industry. It is their duty, by timely counsel, 
admonition, or reproof, to prevent the negligence, 
inactivity, or misfortunes of any individual, from 
adding to the burthens of the rest. They assess and 
collect the poll-tax,* house tax,+ and land-tax, and 
many others, which, in their mode of collection and 
repartition, vary in almost every village, but which 
always depend on a scale of property. They manage 
the municipal funds, collected for the compensation of 
houses in which Turks have lodged, for the supplying 
of provender and provisions to troops, cavashes, or 
Turks, passing through the place; for the defraying 
of all expenses connected with the local administra¬ 
tion, such as presents to governors, and to messengers 

* The poll tax is farmed throughout Turkey by Carachji; but in 
many districts, and in all those where the municipal principle is 
active, the communities redeem themselves, by general valuation, for 
a certain term of years. This is called kissim, or fixed commuta¬ 
tion, and the amount is raised by an increase of the assessed property 
tax. 

f This is termed capniatico, literally “ fumage.” This is the 
hearth tax which has proved so obnoxious, as every assessed tax, at 
every period of our history, has proved in England; the natural 
consequence of assessors and collectors not being municipal officers. 


26 


MUNICIPALITIES OF TURKEY. 


bringing orders, expenses of envoys sent to different 
parts, and bribes for deliverance from forced labour, 
or from other illegal impositions. The funds for 
these purposes, which often amount to as much, or 
even more, than the government taxes,* are appor¬ 
tioned, when the accounts are made up, according to 
the estimate of property they have made for the dis¬ 
tribution of government taxes. 

There is scarcely a community of Turkey which 
is free from debt; an average of twenty villages in 
different parts of the country, gives me two pounds for 
each house. These debts have been contracted by the 
urgent necessities of the communities, who often, if 
they could not provide a supper for their unwelcome 
guests, would have had their houses burnt. The money 
was never procured at less than twenty per cent. The 
lenders were bankers of the pasha’s, who thus mono¬ 
polized the produce of the districts, or they were 
Turks, possessed of capital, which they advantage¬ 
ously employed in farming branches of the revenue, 
or in loans to Greeks—their quality of Mussulmans 
giving them facilities for enforcing payment, securing 
to them the protection of the governors, and enabling 

* ]f governors received a regular salary, the troops regular pay, 
and if the Greeks were permitted to pay their contribution at the 
chief place of each province, the cause and pretence for the collec¬ 
tion of this heavy tax would immediately disappear. The facilities 
this administration presents for reorganization are as numerous as 
its abuses, and meet one in every detail. In the district of Argyro 
Castro 2066 Greek houses paid a house tax of 11,000 piastres. The 
grand vizir proposed to them to allow them to pay the tax directly 
by their own elders to his treasurer, and asked them what sum they 
would advance him for that permission, The sum fixed and paid in 
1831 by the registers, which I inspected, was 46,000 ! 


MUNICIPALITIES OF TURKEY. 


27 


them, besides the large interest for their money, to 
exact services of all kinds from the villages indebted 
to them. The management of these debts is, of 
course, a most intricate business, and perhaps the 
most difficult duty of the elders, on whose responsi¬ 
bility they are contracted, and who, when their 
troublesome and powerful creditors proceed to ex¬ 
tremities, are the first to suffer in property and in 
person. The financial affairs of the communities 
are comprised under these three heads :—assessment, 
and collection of government taxes; collection, ma¬ 
nagement, and disbursement of municipal taxes; and 
contracting and managing of municipal loans—all 
which were entirely confined to the elders. 

Their civil functions are by no means so easily 
defined. They distribute lands left uncultivated, or 
which are left without an heir. In transactions be¬ 
tween merchants and members of the communities 
for cheese, butter, wool, cotton, or any other produce, 
the contract is legalized by the signature of one or 
more of the elders, who thus become caution for their 
townsfolks.* Purchases are only legal when wit- 

* It is a principle of Arabic finance that the tax on each species 
of produce be demanded after its collection; but this principle 
is often violated. To favour the bankers, the people are often 
required to pay their taxes before the harvest, before the time of 
shearing, and to demand the tax on flocks before lambing time (our 
Saxon Lammas). Since bankers have become securities to the Porte 
for the tribute of the provinces, they are the real proprietors of 
Turkey. The peasant is thus obliged to raise money at any price, 
and the banker furnishes him, on the payment of an exorbitant in¬ 
terest, until harvest time, and on condition of receiving his produce 
at from two to six per cent, below the current price. The perver¬ 
sion of this most admirable principle shows its superiority over 
our indirect system, which anticipates production. The banker. 


28 


MUNICIPALITIES OF TURKEY. 


nessed by them.* Together with the priests, they 
decide on all disputes, settle disputed water courses 
and successions, and maintain a species of govern¬ 
ment, which tends rather to prevent than to repress 
disorder, by exercising a paternal or patriarchal 
control over each individual of the community. 

The union of all these powers, in the hands of the 
elders, leads to no abuse, while public opinion acts 
immediately and directly on the functionaries, and 

by merely postponing the day of entering the payment, realizes 
a large profit, depresses the value of the produce, restricts the 
market, and keeps the peasant in debt and in beggary, and sub¬ 
tracts, unperceived, a large portion from the prey of the pasha. 
This system has introduced the practice, now become general, of ad¬ 
vancing money to the peasants two or three months before the har¬ 
vest, on account of the produce of the land. The peasants not only 
engage to supply, at the stipulated price, the produce for which they 
have received the advanced sums, but bind themselves to furnish 
none of their produce to any other merchant. The existence of such 
a system, not to say its universality, proves the general honesty of 
the people. Never does it occur that the receipt of the money is 
denied, the payment resisted, or the produce of the contracting 
party sold to another, although they might by doing so obtain its 
full value. Yet these contracts are only verbal, or, if written and 
signed, they are signed only by the elders. A shepherd in the 
mountains once refused to sell me an oke of cheese for any price, 
because he had promised all his cheese to a certain merchant: 
afterwards he made me a present of it: when I gave him a bakshish, 
he said, “ Recollect this is not in payment of the cheese.” 

* We find a similar custom among the Anglo Saxons. In Athel- 
ston’s Laws, it is enacted that all purchases should be witnessed by 
the gerefas in tbe Folc-Gemot, otherwise they were not legal if the 
value exceeded twenty pennies. See Wilkin’s Anglo-Saxon Laws. 
And among the Hindoos, “ The most important testimony in cases 
brought before the Punchayet, was sought for in the register books 
of the Curnum, (second municipal officer of the Hindoo villages,) as 
no matter of barter or exchange could take place without his cogni¬ 
zance, and he was supposed to record all such transactions.”— Gleig’s 
History of the B. E. in India, Vol. I. p. 36. 


MUNICIPALITIES OF TURKEY. 


29 


while these owe their election solely to character, and 
their tenure of office to public confidence. The 
acceptance, as well as the conferring of the trust, 
elevates the character of both parties. The am¬ 
bition of obtaining so honourable a distinction ex¬ 
tends its effects to the whole community, while 
the equal right of conferring it leaves no individual 
the irritation of exclusion, no motive for excep¬ 
tion to the general feelings, or for opposition to the 
common interests. The equal distribution of taxa¬ 
tion, and the immutability* of the common burthens, 
made them look on private possessions as common 
gain, and on individual poverty and negligence as 
common misfortunes. 

Thus were these communities linked together by 
the strongest ties of interest, opinion, and mutual 
responsibility : each man was a guarantee for his 
neighbour’s obligations, a security for his person, 
and consequently a censor on his condition and 
morals. Man did not lose his individuality, for the 
character of the individual extended to the mass, 
while the prosperity of the whole, under the direct 
system of taxation, benefited each individual. They 
rejoiced in each other’s prosperity, bewailed each 
other’s misfortunes ; they reproved the idle, lest 
he should be a charge to the rest; they watched the 
fugitive, lest his debts should be thrown on the com¬ 
munity ; they repressed the robber, not to suffer in 
his stead; and were happy when the submissive were 

* It is also a maxim of the Arabs, that the expenditure of the state 
be adjusted to the legal and fixed revenue, not that the revenue should 
be accommodated to the expenditure; but at intervals new assess¬ 
ments were made. 


30 


MUNICIPALITIES OF TURRET. 


not punished for the rebellious, and when the living- 
had not to pay for the dead. 

This forced guarauteeship resembles the voluntary 
associations of the Anglo-Saxons, termed gild-scipes, 
in which the members were bound to protect each 
other, and were rendered by law responsible for each 
other. In the distribution of the were, or price of 
blood, in the territorial arrangements of tythings, 
when the members of each community were bound by 
the law of frankpledge for each others obedience to 
justice, we may trace the principle of responsibility, 
and consequently of control exercised by every 
body, whether a family, or an association, or a com¬ 
munity, over its members. Where the gild paid a 
portion of the penalty incurred by a member, it 
would carefully scrutinize character before admis¬ 
sion, and watch it afterwards. # If men paid also 
a portion of the penalties that might be incurred by 
their relatives under a code by which every crime 
had its fixed price, they had a right to exercise 
censorship over those relatives; and if the commu¬ 
nity was bound for its members, every man had an 
interest to watch over his neighbour’s conduct. What 
coincidence can be more striking than this guarantee- 
ship of man for man, and how irresistible must have 
been its effect on national character ! 


* In Russia there are companies of free labourers termed artels, 
The artel elects a chief, and takes his name. The numbers run from 
20 to 60. When a candidate offers himself for admission, his cha¬ 
racter is enquired into, and he is only admitted on its proving good, 
and on his furnishing caution to some specified amount; the artel 
then becomes responsible for losses occasioned and theft committed 
by him. Their character is deservedly high. 


31 


CHAPTER III. 

Amongst the functions of the elders, I have not 
enumerated the office of arbitrator or judge, for those 
more particularly belong to the priest. At Constan¬ 
tinople the chiefs of the different religions are ren¬ 
dered responsible for their followers, and are invested 
with civil authority over them. In the provinces, the 
bishop is judge of the Christians: by his berat his 
judgment is final in matters of marriage and divorce.* 
In secular matters they are guided by the Pandects, j- 


* Though the Turks do not recognize any judicial authority save 
that of the Mussulman cadi, imperial firmans, granted to several dis¬ 
tricts, expressly forbid all interference with decisions which have been 
given by any arbitrators whatever, chosen by mutual consent of the 
parties. 

t The Koran and the Sooni, though they are the established law r 
throughout Turkey, are not the law in operation among the rayas, 
unless when they put themselves within its sphere by transactions 
with Turks, which involves obligations and duties, and these are 
very few, as Mussulmans and rayas cannot be mutually trustees, 
guardians, &c. The Turkish law necessarily interferes only in 
cases of public violence ; such precisely was the state of the law T in 
India under the Mahometans, where the interference of the Mussul¬ 
man courts was only in the case of civil and correctional police, or 
where the interest of Hindoos and Mussulmans were complicated. It 
is the British administration which has given the Mussulman code 
the force of law. 


32 


MUNICIPALITIES OF TURKEY. 


In the small communities, to the consideration of 
which I wish strictly to confine myself, the priest 
is the judge in matters which are not of sufficient 
importance to be carried before the bishop. The 
priest is consequently an important personage, is 
associated with the elders in their miniature admi¬ 
nistrations, and deserves particular notice. 

The priest differs in scarcely any respect from the 
other members of the community; the authority of the 
office depends greatly on the merit of the man; he re¬ 
ceives but a small fee for certain religious ceremonies, 
and for marriages, burials, and baptisms. He cultivates 
his ground with his own hands, or follows some me¬ 
chanical art; he is, or may be, a married man, and is 
bound to no interest of caste, or system opposed to 
the interest of his community. He purchases his 
ordination. This, however little it might be sup¬ 
posed so at first sight, is no disparagement to his 
worthiness. In a country where a whole commu¬ 
nity is exercising a constant and severe censorship 
on each man’s conduct, the possession of wealth is 
a proof of industry, activity, frugality, and intel¬ 
ligence; and the means of purchasing ordination, 
if it proves any thing, would less prove corruption in 
the system, than character and capacity in the indivi¬ 
dual. I wish I could say as much for the higher 
orders of the hierarchy, who owe their nomination to 
purchase ; but whenever you ascend in Turkey you 
come in contact with the corrupting influence of the 
Turkish government. 

The municipal officers consist then of elders—ad¬ 
ministrators elected by the freest suffrage; and of 
priests—arbitrators, bound to no system, indebted to 


MUNICIPALITIES OP TURKEY. 


33 


no favour; not indeed elected by the people, but 
liable to be rejected if they are found to be, or if 
they are thought to be, unworthy. 

The municipal officers are generally, indeed I may 
say almost universally, either the wealthiest, or among 
the wealthiest, inhabitants of the place. Solon’s 
maxims of conferring the magistracies on the rich, 
by the election of the poor, was here a practice, but 
not a law ; had it been a law, probably the practice 
would long ere now have disappeared, or at least 
have ceased to be beneficial. Happily, the Turks 
never allowed their good intentions to be expressed 
by legislative enactments. The firmans, which 
breathe the greatest benevolence, confine themselves 
to indicating wrongs or injuries, or taxes, which are 
not to be inflicted on the rayas. 

The elders are faithful stewards, and intelligent 
administrators. They stand between poverty and 
want, between weakness and oppression, and are be¬ 
loved as common fathers. Exceptions to this rule, 
which I am far from pretending to deny, my own in¬ 
quiries would make me suppose few in number, ([ 
allude exclusively to the country villages,) and in 
such cases the exception is more easily remarked than 
the rule. Evil is so much more readily observed and 
recorded than good; men are so much more inclined 
to speak of injuries than of benefits; the unfor¬ 
tunate are so prone to suspicion,—that the praises 1 
have heard bestowed by the peasants on their elders 
have, I freely confess, weighed more with me than 
the accusations I have heard sometimes urged against 
them. 

I have never seen any thing in the social institu- 

D 


34 


MUNICIPALITIES OP TURKEY. 


tions of any country capable of giving an idea of 
the strict coincidence of character and unity of action 
which these communities receive from their mode of 
government. The character of the individual is 
merged in that of the race which, adapting itself to 
the necessities and obligations it has to meet, concen¬ 
trates itself, repels all foreign admixture, and while 
it presents the external characters of tameness and 
submission, provides for every exaction with active 
industry and self-denying frugality.^ 

* I shall presently point out the remarkable resemblance between 
the municipalities of India, and those of Arabia and Turkey ; but I 
cannot resist anticipating that comparison by extracting from Mr. 
Greig’s History of British India, as descriptive of the Hindoo na¬ 
tional character, which he ascribes solely to the municipal institu¬ 
tions. It must be borne in mind, however, that he speaks of a peo¬ 
ple destitute of literature, of any political power or prospects, of the 
right of property, depressed by caste and superstition, and among 
whom the municipalities exist now only in form and name. 

“ Under these simple, we had almost said patriarchal arrangements, 
the natives of Hindoostan seem to have lived from the earliest, down, 
comparatively speaking, to late times—if not free from the troubles 
and annoyances to which men in all conditions of society are more 
or less subject, still in the full enjoyment, each individual, of his pro¬ 
perty, and of a very considerable share of personal liberty. 

“ Leave him in possession of the farm, which his forefathers 
owned, and preserve entire the institutions to which he had from in¬ 
fancy been accustomed, and the simple Hindoo would give himself 
no concern whatever as to the intrigues and cabals which took place 
at the capital. Dynasties might displace one another; revolutions 
might recur; and the persons of his sovereigns might change every 
day; but so long as his own little society remained undisturbed, all 
other contingencies were to him subjects scarcely of speculation. 
To this, indeed, more than to any other cause, is to be ascribed the 
facility with which one conqueror after another has overrun different 
parts of India ; which submitted, not so much because its inhabitants 
were wanting in courage, as because to the great majority among them 


MUNICIPALITIES OF TURKEY. 


35 


These institutions alone, under such varying cir¬ 
cumstances, could have preserved to the Greeks their 
astonishing uniformity of character, language, and 

it signified nothing by whom the reins of the supreme government were 
held. A third consequence of the village system has been one which 
men will naturally regard as advantageous or the reverse, according 
to the opinions which they hold, touching certain abstract points into 
which it is not necessary to enter here. Perhaps there are not to be 
found on the face of the earth, a race of human beings whose attach¬ 
ment to their native place, will bear a comparison with that of the 
Hindoos. There are no privations which the Hindoo will hesitate to 
bear, rather than voluntarily abandon the spot where he was born ; 
and if continued oppression drive him forth, he will return to it again 
after long years of exile with fresh fondness. No doubt, this exces¬ 
sive partiality to place, is not without its effect in producing the ex¬ 
treme submissiveness of character, which belongs to the native of 
India. The consequence of all this has been to create among the 
Hindoos, a marked peculiarity of national character, into which 
neither the lapse of ages, nor an intimate communication with other 
tribes, have succeeded in introducing any material innovation/’ 

in every line of this eloquent picture of the Hindoos, may be 
traced their resemblance to the raya, but that resemblance unfortu¬ 
nately does not rest here. The Turkish code not enforced abso¬ 
lutely on the raya of Turkey, is enforced on the Hindoo! The 
commercial policy of the Company has had, but to a far greater ex¬ 
tent, the precise effect of the influence of the Armenian sarafs in 
Turkey, that of keeping the peasant in debt, and deteriorating the 
value of the produce of the soil. Perhaps even the Turks encamped in 
Europe, and the English quartered in Asia, may not appear to the 
natives very dissimilar. The contemptuous manner with which a 
Turk receives and treats the most venerable raya is sufficiently 
known to be a chief cause of the hatred against them, whilst the 
old Turkish canon prescribes a very different etiquette. ** The 
foolish pride of the English, absolutely leads them to set at nought 
the injunctions of their own government. The Tuseeldars, for in¬ 
stance, ought, by an order in council, to have chairs offered them 
in the presence of their European superiors, &c.”—See Heber's 
Journal, vol. ii. p. 372. 

Once hunting with a Turkish Bey, he pointed out to me a Greek, 

D 2 


36 MUNICIPALITIES OF TURKEY. 

creed, and produced such invariable submission to 
the Turkish dominion, when the oppressors, in¬ 
finitely outnumbered by the oppressed, were so fre¬ 
quently exposed to be cut off in detail, had the more 
daring arms not been restrained by the opinion and 
the responsibility of the communities to which they 
belonged. Men, penned in this extraordinary man¬ 
ner over the face of a country, attached to their pens 
by affection no less than by the vigilance of their 
comrades, and the impossibility of their being re¬ 
ceived into stranger flocks, were not likely to give 
inconvenience to their masters. Before I understood 
the secret workings of the system, I have often been 
exceedingly surprised to see a single Turk exercising 
the most exasperating tyranny over a village, in the 
midst of which, all alone, he smoked his pipe in per¬ 
fect indifference, without an attempt being made upon 
his person, and without a single individuals endea¬ 
vouring to fly from his exactions, or resist his vio- 
lence. # The difficulty was explained when I knew 

whom he was much attached to for his skill in horse flesh. I 
found the man a classical scholar, which was surprising, as he was 
old. I was glad to express to his master my satisfaction and sur¬ 
prise. The old huntsman, with a reproachful look said to me after¬ 
wards, “ You have spoilt my favour; my master is fond of hunting 
but not of study.” Bishop Heber, after interesting us in the per¬ 
sonal history and literary acquirements of the Raya of Tanjore, 
observes, “ He is much respected by the English officers in his 
neighbourhood, as a good judge of a horse and a cool shot at a 
tiger 1 ” 

* This must not be taken as descriptive of tliegeneral state of 
the country; in no part of Europe have I seen the peasantry in the 
enjoyment of so much comfort as 1 have often observed among the 
ray as of Roumelie; and here I allude to the state of the southern 
districts during the Greek revolution. 


MUNICIPALITIES OF TURKEY. 


37 


that every individual was surety for his neighbour, 
that exactions were defrayed from the common stock, 
and that all the inhabitants of the village were at once 
watched and watching, and gaolers to themselves. It 
happens when, as they say, u oppression has reached 
the bone,” that a village disperses entirely in a night, 
and next morning not a soul is found to suffer for the 
fugitives.^ 

It is not in Turkey alone that Greeks are to be 
found; emigrations of them have taken place at va¬ 
rious periods to other countries, both in considerable 
numbers and in small bodies. They are to be found 

* When I was travelling in Chaldiclice of Macedonia, in the au¬ 
tumn of 1830, two of the privileged villages, formerly members of a 
sort of federal community, dispersed in this way during the night. 
The inhabitants, before they resolve on such a step, must be driven 
to despair. If they are caught, they are beaten, pillaged, thrown 
into prison, or reduced, not to a nominal but to real slavery, and 
where they can find refuge, the other communities fear to receive 
them; for if discovered, not only the obligations they may have to 
their own communities are exacted from those who secrete them, but 
the very suspicion subjects the village suspected of secreting fugi¬ 
tives, to vexatious visitations from cavashes, who are not guests 
easy to support, and who “ sit ” till they have obtained their object, 
or till they have eaten up the fowls and lambs, and drunk all the raki 
of the villages. 

No hindrance is put to the departure of any man, who leaves rela¬ 
tives or property as security for his re-appearance. Those who can¬ 
not procure personal bail, are only allowed to emigrate on obtaining 
security for the payment, by the masters whom they go to serve, of a 
yearly sum to the community, towards the karatch, if the village 
poll-tax is paid by composition, and towards other burdens accord¬ 
ing to the arrangements made with the elders; if they retain pro¬ 
perty from which profit accrues, not otherwise, those not possessed 
of property, where the karatch is not levied by composition, may de¬ 
part freely. 


38 


MUNICIPALITIES OF TURKEY. 


in Tartary, in the steppes of the Kouban, in the 
Crimea, in Transylvania, in Hungary, in Sardinia 
and Corsica, Apulia and Sicily. The period of their 
separation from the parent-stock has seldom been so 
remote as its subjugation by the Turks. Yet, almost 
universally in these settlements the Greek character 
has lost its distinguishing features, above all, its acti¬ 
vity and intelligence. Their language has become often 
unintelligible; they have generally renounced the tenets 
of the Greek church, and they seem morally and in¬ 
tellectually far below the level of the rayas of Turkey. 
Yet these settlements are in civilized countries, whose 
governments relieve the ignorant peasant from all 
responsibility, from all trouble or fatigue in the col¬ 
lection of his taxes, and the administration of his 
affairs. It is the tax-gatherer and police-officer that 
have effaced the type of nationality—it is the absence 
of the humanizing and instructive experience of the 
institutions I have been describing, that has exposed 
them to the corruption of their grammar and their 
creed. Have these colonists suffered more for that 
creed which they have abandoned, than the rayas of 
Turkey for that which they have preserved ? Is the 
hatred of a Greek less for the faith of Rome than for 
that of Mecca? Are the worldly advantages of pro- 
selytiSm greater in Italy than in Turkey ? In Italy 
the advantage is negative; escape from the persecu¬ 
tion of the prevailing bigotry. In Turkey it is trans¬ 
lation from the class of oppressed to that of oppres¬ 
sor—it is elevation frdm the state of serf to that 
of noble. Without these allurements the Greeks of 
Italy have become Catholics; and with them all the 


MUNICIPALITIES OF TURKEY. 


39 


Greeks of Turkey remain Christians. Even the cri¬ 
minals at the stake will scorn to purchase, not life 
alone, but life and favour, by a change of name. # 

It is not the influence of the priesthood, or even 
of religion, that produces this firm adherence to their 
creed; it is respect for the opinions of the little 
community, over which the strong affections of each 
individual are spread. It is not devotion to a heart¬ 
less religion of ceremonies and witchcraft that in¬ 
spires, and has inspired, a whole nation, for centuries, 
with a martyr's endurance of persecution, and a 
stoic's contempt for worldly allurements; it is the 
moral authority—it is the support of fellowship and 
friendship, that results from the close pressure of 
man and man, and the strong linking of interests, and 
opinions, and affections, under the municipal bond ; 
so that the good opinion of the fraternity in which 
each has been brought up is to every man more than 
faith or law.-j- 

* Christians and Turks are distinguished by their names as well 
as their costume; and inferior sort of proselytism is admitted in 
Turkey by merely taking a Turkish name, without the performance 
of any ceremony. 

■j- This moral bond is the only law of the Turkish ray a—not merely 
in civil cases, but also in criminal, or at least in the prevention of 
crimes; punishment confounds the guilty and the innocent; it 
therefore loses its preventative terrors. Since the revolution the Greek 
race has suffered cruelly, but not so the other tribes. I never heard 
of a Jew being executed. A late traveller observes, he never heard 
of a Bulgarian being executed: nor have J. There are no prisons 
overflowing with debtors, vagrants and felons; indeed, prisons 
can scarcely be said to exist. Where punishment does take place, 
its indiscriminateness takes from it all the shame, and even gives it 
the character of martyrdom; so much so, that the axe is engraved as 
a proud distinction on the tomb of a decapitated man. The follow- 


40 


MUNICIPALITIES OP TURKEY. 


Certainly the most striking feature of Turkey is the 
adherence of the various populations of rayas, who 
are oppressed merely on account of religion, to their 
particular creeds; they have remained for ages un¬ 
amalgamated with the ruling class, and are at the 
present day in nearly the same position as at the 
period of their subjugation. The difficulty of ac¬ 
counting for such a state has accredited the supposi¬ 
tion that some conservative principle in the Turkish 
government keeps all things stationary. But the 
facts will neither bear the construction, nor the ex¬ 
planation gratuitously invented, to account for the 
supposed difficulty. 

ing correct description of the bagnio of Constantinople will show 
the mild spirit of the Turkish code, and will support my position, 
that public law and penal codes have nothing to do with the morality 
of the Turkish raya. “ Nothing could exceed my surprise, I may 
say disappointment, for I had strung my nerves for a trial on going 
into the bagnio, to find it by no means a horrible place, but a very 
quiet, orderly conducted prison. The galley slaves of Toulon, I 
positively assert, are one hundred times worse off than the inmates 
of the bagnio. The only point of resemblance is in their food, 
equally bad in each, consisting of a kind of hog-wash, sufficiently 
nutritious to keep the bones covered : in all other respects they dif¬ 
fer. The galley slaves are chained in gangs—the bagniotes in pairs. 
The former must sleep on boards, the latter may sleep on beds. In 
Toulon dock-yard no horses or steam are employed in order that 
the culprits may have the harder work. In Constantinople arsenal 
the number ot sailors on pay, whether the fleet be on commission or 
not, is so great, that the convicts have scarcely any thing to do. 
The former have not the advantage of religion—within the precincts 
of the bagnio are a mosque, a Greek church, and a synagogue. In 
Toulon, there are four or five thousand galley slaves—in the bagnio 
the number rarely amounts to one hundred! for a city containing 
about half a million of souls, and the chief rogues of the empire.” 
—Slade's Travels in Turkey , vol. i. p. 105. 


MUNICIPALITIES OF TURKEY. 


4 ! 


The Jews and gipseys have remained stationary in 
Europe as well as in Turkey; the other populations 
that have undergone little or no change are the Greeks, 
the Armenians, the Servians, and a portion of the 
Bulgarians. The populations that have been amal¬ 
gamated with the Turks are the majority of the Alba¬ 
nians, a third of the Bosniacs, and a portion of the 
other Sclavonic tribes. 

The municipal system is common to the Greeks, 
Armenians, and that portion of the Bulgarians who 
are still Christians. The Albanians and the Sclavo- 
nians have not possessed these institutions, but have 
ever been subject to odjacks and knezes, military 
chiefs. 

The portion of the Bulgarians that have conformed 
to Islamism occupied the mountainous and remoter 
parts of the country. # The portion that maintained 
their creed was that inhabiting the plains of Mace- 

* There are two principal tribes of Bulgarian Mahometans. The 
Tulemans, who occupy the mountainous regions of Rhodope, above 
Jenidge and Cavalla, and the Pomac, whose range extends north¬ 
ward to the Danube, and the borders of Servia. These Mussulmans 
preserve their Bulgarian language, national manners, and industry. 
They are exceedingly jealous of the Turks, and never suffer an armed 
force to penetrate into their mountains. They have the reputation 
of brave soldiers, and excellent horsemen ; but they are not com¬ 
pelled, like the Albanians, by the sterility of their mountains, to 
seek their bread by military service. I have received hospitality 
from them, and a finer set of men I have never seen. They have 
ealously entered the new organization, though as yet they have 
furnished but inconsiderable numbers. The grand vizir, in his co¬ 
lossal schemes of military organization, reckoned on disciplining 
forty or fifty thousand of them. These Mussulmans are perfectly 
distinct from the Juruks, Coniars and Evladi Fatihans, who are 
Turks. 


42 


MUNICIPALITIES OF TURKEY. 


donia, Epirus, Bulgaria, and Thrace, in the vicinity of 
Monastic, Salonik, Joannina, Nyssa, Sofia, Philipo- 
polis, Adrianople, and Constantinople itself, and conse¬ 
quently subject to overwhelming power and unceas¬ 
ing oppression; but amongst them the communal 
system originated, as I have above described, in the 
total inability to resist the Turkish sway—in the an¬ 
nihilation of military power and native aristocracy, 
so that they were left no motive but character in the 
selection of stewards for the collection of their 
taxes and the management of their affairs. In the 
stronger positions, which longer resisted the Turkish 
arms, little military chiefs maintained their ground 
and authority; the strong concentration of interest and 
opinion of the communal system was not organized, 
and when obliged to submit, the chiefs bargained for 
exclusive privileges ,* their capricious favour, not the 
fixed opinion of the community, became therefore the 
rule of right, and the spring of action; so that, not¬ 
withstanding the immunity from persecution and op¬ 
pression afforded them by their remoteness and their 
mountains, they conformed to the dominant creed, as 
I have heard it stated by themselves, to avoid the 
invidious poll-tax, and evidently with the view of 
favouring the ambition of their leaders, who thus ob¬ 
tained access to the military career, with chances of 
advancement and plunder in the camp, and authority 
at home. 

Amongst the Albanians, Ghegs, Bosnians, and Scla- 
vons, to the north and west, the same facility of 
conversion is observable, precisely in proportion to 
the strength of the country, and the lightness of op¬ 
pression. Amongst these races, men, instead of co- 


MUNICIPALITIES OF TURKEY. 


43 


alescing, seem to fly each other; no villages are to 
be seen huddled together, but insulated so'is or races 
have perched their little towers of defence among the 
rocks, and scattered them over the mountains. The 
Merdites alone enjoy a species of autonomy; also do 
they retain their creed. In fact, through all the mo¬ 
difications of climate, position, and race, the original 
creed co-exists with the autonomic institutions; and 
in the absence of these Islamism is found. The next 
to impregnable fortresses of Colonias, Dibre, &c., 
where military chiefs held their ground, have readily 
admitted the supremacy of the crescent; the plains of 
Thrace, devoured by locusts of functionaries, trodden 
down by the unceasing passage of fanatic hordes, 
where distinctions among the tributaries were swept 
away, still cling to the cross. # 

* I believe the case is much stonger than 1 have here put it. The 
first conversions to Islamism, took place among the tribes who have 
longest persevered in their creed, while those that have subsequently 
conformed, resisted it at first with a spirit of patriotism and chivalry 
as well as of fanaticism. The descendants of the warriors of Scander 
Beg and of the defenders of Scodra, are now Musselmans ; while 
many of the predecessors of the humble raya, and even of the 
submissive monks, both now unflinching Christians, readily em¬ 
braced Mahometanism at its first appearance. But the Christian 
writers have generally disguised and concealed the fact. “ In gens 

mortalium turba.et ipsorum qui in religiosis claustris de- 

adMahometanismum delabitur .”—Vivaldus ap. Reland Prcefet . 



44 


CHAPTER IV. 

In the cities, however, the municipalities show them¬ 
selves under a different aspect. The primates are 
looked upon as worse than the Turkish governors, 
and the system itself serves only to add Greek in¬ 
genuity to Turkish despotism. The rich and power¬ 
ful intrigue for the office of primate; the Turks 
interfere with the nomination; amongst the body of 
the people a deep feeling and sense of wrong and 
oppression is kept ever alive by the constant agitation 
of the matter, and every large community is split 
into numberless factions, at enmity with each other. 

This contrast between the towns and villages, be¬ 
tween the character of the urban and rural Greeks, I 
have observed with painful anxiety; nor did it seem 
to me possible to resist the conclusion, that the mu¬ 
nicipal organization was inapplicable to large com¬ 
munities. It was not till after these pages were 
written, that I learnt from a Mussulman, lately 
holding a high diplomatic situation in this country, 
that this supposed inapplicability to large com¬ 
munities was wholly without foundation; because 
city taxation is not direct. Caratch, which is 
farmed—customs, droits—reunis, or duties on the 
entrance of articles of consumption at the gates, and 


MUNICIPALITIES OF TURKEY. 


45 


taxes on sales and shops* raised by government agents* 
replace the direct tribute. I have already shown 
that the utility and bond of the municipalities was the 
assessment and collection of the revenue ; the per¬ 
version of those bodies, when they had no such 
functions to perform* no such responsibility to sup¬ 
port* is a corroboration of the maxim I had laid down 
when I thought*the state of the larger cities militated 
against* instead of supporting* my opinion. 

I come now to the consideration of their effect on 
portions of the country that have been for a while 
neglected by the Turkish government* or which* 
under the protection of Mahometan religious institu¬ 
tions, have been subtracted from the control of the 
civil authorities* and abandoned to their own manage¬ 
ment. Here we have effects at once tangible and 
apparent, which bring into evidence the influences 
which escape observation in the mass of the nation. 
Unlike the old commercial towns* the recently created 
communities are objects of investigation at once inter¬ 
esting and gratifying* with no complications of in¬ 
terests and circumstances to mislead the judgment. 
The causes of their rise may be traced most satis¬ 
factorily to their social constitution* and can be attri¬ 
buted to nothing else; and in their decline, when 
they have declined* may be distinguished the ex¬ 
cellence of the municipal form of administration by 
the evils that have immediately followed its cor¬ 
ruption. 

Whenever the most unpromising spot has been ne¬ 
glected, it has made rapid progress; in ascertaining 
how far each has been emancipated, we have grounds 
for calculating the progress it has made. Those por- 


46 


MUNICIPALITIES OF TURKEY. 


tions of Turkey that have acquired wealth, strength, 
and celebrity, have sprung up thus at a distance from, 
and uncontrolled by the Turkish authority; even, as 
in the middle ages, the municipal cities and republics 
burst forth in some remote corner, or on hitherto 
neglected shores, into splendid contrast with the sur¬ 
rounding barbarism; but as the great powers extended 
their limits, these states were drawn within the sphere 
of political centralization, or they were diverted by 
the slippery circumstances of the times, from commer¬ 
cial and manufacturing to political purposes : still their 
rise, as their fall, bears testimony to the simple but 
energetic organization under which they flourished, 
and to which alone their prosperity can be attributed. 
Do the antecedent pages of history—does the map of 
the Mediterranean, indicate any peculiarly happy com¬ 
binations that could promise to Amalphi, Montpellier, 
Barcelona, Ancona,—places which had no power to 
make themselves respected—no anterior connexion 
or habits of business, which are not in the passage of 
commerce—not blessed with local fertility, or cele¬ 
brated for manufactures,—the prosperity that dazzles 
by its rise, but has not instructed by its decay ; 
tenantless structures, princely relics of departed 
wealth, record, in their eloquent stillness, the perils 
of commercial legislation. 

Ambelakia is the name of a spot overlooking the 
vale of Tempe, whose history is the most perfect 
and striking illustration of the operation of similar 
causes in Turkey. This extraordinary association, 
after a brilliant existence of twenty years, was dis¬ 
solved in consequence of complicated legal proceed¬ 
ings, which it had no competent court to decide. 


MUNICIPALITIES OF TURKEY. 


47 


and in which the ruling body was an interested party. 
For several years, at an enormous expense, they 
carried the proceedings from court to court, having 
no natural tribunal—mendicating decisions, and re¬ 
jecting them when obtained. The municipal body, 
which was also the commercial firm, closed its doors 
to popular election and its books to public in¬ 
spection ; but there was neither prescription nor 
charters to screen and support its injustice. A re¬ 
casting of the society took place, but at that period 
the failure of the Vienna bank, where their funds 
were deposited, the evil effects of the protracted 
litigation, and much more than these, the revolution 
in commerce that English cotton yarn was beginning 
to effect, conspired with political troubles for its 
ruin. Ambelakia nevertheless remains an example 
of what can be effected in Turkey, not by a reform 
of government principles, but only by the subtrac¬ 
tion of a piece of ground from its immediate practical 
abuses. 

This was perhaps the spot, amid all the rich recol¬ 
lections of Thessaly, which I visited with the greatest 
interest; its commerce, its activity, and its population 
have disappeared, but its palaces still overlook the 
Peneus and the Vale of Tempe, to surprise the 
traveller, and to convince him of the reality of a story 
which appears almost fabulous. I extract from 
Beaujour ? s “ Tableau du Commerce de la Greece,” 
the details he has preserved respecting it, in as far as 
they were confirmed to me by the information I ob¬ 
tained on the spot. 

iC Ambelakia, by its activity, appears rather a 
borough of Holland than a village of Turkey. This 


48 


MUNICIPALITIES OF TURKEY. 


village spreads, by its industry, movement, and life, 
over the surrounding country, and gives birth to an 
immense commerce, which unites Germany to Greece 
by a thousand threads. Its population has trebled in 
fifteen years, and amounts at present (1798) to four 
thousand, who live in their manufactories like swarms 
of bees in their hives. In this village are unknown 
both the vices and cares engendered by idleness ; 
the hearts of the Ambelakiots are pure and their 
faces serene; the slavery which blasts the plains 
watered by the Peneus, and stretching at their feet, has 
never ascended the sides of Pelion ; (Ossa;) and they 
govern themselves, like their ancestors, by their pro- 
toyeros, (primates, elders,) and their own magistrates. 
Twice the Mussulmen of Larissa attempted to scale 
their rocks, and twice were they repulsed by hands 
which dropped the shuttle to seize the musket. 

“ Every arm, even those of the children, is em¬ 
ployed in the factories; whilst the men dye the 
cotton, the women prepare and spin it. There are 
twenty-four factories, in which yearly two thousand, 
five hundred bales of cotton yarn, of one hundred 
okes each, were dyed (6138 cwts.) This yarn found 
its way into Germany, and was disposed of at Buda, 
Vienna, Leipsic, Dresden, Anspach, and Bareuth. 
The Ambelakiot merchants had houses of their own 
in all these places. These houses belonged to dis¬ 
tinct associations at Ambelakia. The competition 
thus established, reduced very considerably the com¬ 
mon profits; they proposed therefore to unite them¬ 
selves under one central commercial administration.* 

* This competition was of a peculiar character; these houses were 
agents of one factory, and the competition between the agents did 


MUNICIPALITIES OF TURKEY. 


49 


Twenty years ago this plan was suggested, and in a 
year afterwards it was carried into execution. The 
lowest shares in this joint-stock company were five 
thousand piastres, (between 600/. and 700/.) and the 
highest were restricted to twenty thousand, that the 
capitalists might not swallow up all the profits. The 
workmen subscribed their little profits, and uniting 
in societies, purchased single shares; and besides 
their capital, their labour was reckoned in the general 
amount; they received their share of the profits ac¬ 
cordingly, and abundance was soon spread through 
the whole community. The dividends were at first 
restricted to ten per cent, and the surplus profit was 
applied to the augmenting of the capital; which 
in two years was raised from 600,000 to 1,000,000 
piastres (120,000/.) 

“ Three directors, under an assumed firm, managed 
the affairs of the company; but the signature was 
also confided to three associates at Vienna, whence 
the returns were made. These two firms of Ambe- 
lakia and Vienna had their correspondents at Peste, 
Trieste, Leipsic, Salonique, Constantinople, and 
Smyrna, to receive their own staple, effect the returns, 
and to extend the market for the cotton yarn of 
Greece. An important part of their trust was to 
circulate the funds realized, from hand to hand, and 


not allow the produce of’ the factory its fair advantages against other 
factories. The factories had a common administration at home, and 
it sent its goods to market at its own expense and risk—combining 
the profits of merchant, broker, and manufacturer; as it was carried 
on by an association of capital and labour which equalized the profits 
so much that the poorest could wait for a return, to reap the benefits 
of the speculation as well as receive the wages of his labour. 


50 


MUNICIPALITIES OF TURKEY. 


from place to place, according to their own circum¬ 
stances, necessities, and the rates of exchange.” 

Thus the company secured to itself both the profits 
of the speculation and the profit of the banker, which 
was exceedingly increased by the command and 
choice which these two capacities gave of time, mar¬ 
ket, and speculation. When the exchange was fa¬ 
vourable, they remitted specie; when unfavourable, 
they remitted goods ; or they speculated on Salonique, 
Constantinople, or Smyrna, by purchase of bills, 
or by the transmission of German goods, accord¬ 
ing to the fluctuations and demands of the dif¬ 
ferent markets, which their extensive relations put 
them immediately in possession of, and the rapid 
turning of so large a capital gave them always the 
means of profiting by. 

“ Never was a society established upon such eco¬ 
nomical principles, and never were fewer hands em¬ 
ployed for the transaction of such a mass of business. 
To concentrate all the profits at Ambelakia, the 
correspondents were all Ambelakiots; and to divide 
the profits more equally amongst them, they were 
obliged to return to Ambelakia after three years’ 
service, and they had then to serve one year at home 
to imbibe afresh the mercantile principles of the 
company. 

“ The greatest harmony long reigned in the asso¬ 
ciation ; the directors were disinterested, the corre¬ 
spondents zealous, and the workmen docile and 
laborious. The company’s profits increased every 
day on a capital which had rapidly become immense; 
each investment realized a profit of from sixty to one 
hundred per cent.; all which was distributed, in just 


MUNICIPALITIES OF TURKEY. 


51 


proportions, to capitalists and workmen, according 
to capital and industry. The shares had increased 
ten fold.” 

The disturbances and distresses which succeeded 
to this period of unrivalled prosperity, are attributed 
by Beaujour, with that provoking vagueness that 
substitutes epithets for causes, to the “ surabondance 
de richesse,” to “ assemblies tumultueuses,” to the 
workmen’s quitting the shuttle for the pen, to the exac¬ 
tions of the rich, and to the insubordination of the infe¬ 
rior, but still wealthy orders. I believe the causes of 
their disunion, with all the evils that ensued, and the 
subsequent ruin of Ambelakia, to have been,—first, 
the two great extension of the municipal body, its con¬ 
sequent loss of activity and controul, and the evasion 
of responsibility by the managers ;—and secondly, 
the absence of judicial authority, to settle in their 
origin disputes and litigated interests, which in the 
absence of law could only be decided by the violence 
of faction. That the exclusion of the workmen from 
a due influence in the administration, and share in 
the profits, was the real cause of the breaking up of 
the commercial association, is established by the fact 
of the workmen separating themselves, immediately 
afterwards, into as many small societies as there 
were associations of workmen possessed of shares in 
the joint stock. As I have already stated, a liti¬ 
gated question, depending on the violation of one of 
their bye-laws, separated the whole community into 
two factions. The question at issue was at length 
very unsatisfactorily terminated at Vienna, after ruin¬ 
ing the harmony of the community, and occasioning 
to both parties enormous losses. 

e 2 


52 


MUNICIPALITIES OF TURKEY. 


Ambelakia for ten years has been deserted : its 
commerce has been altogether extinguished : but it 
would be very unjust to attribute its fall to its internal 
troubles; these, and its losses, might soon have been 
repaired, had their industry not been outstripped by 
that of Manchester. They are very indignant at the 
phantoms of tumult, luxury, and corruption, which 
Beaujours has conjured up to account for an event so 
evidently attributable to the causes above adduced. 
The common disasters of Turkey have reduced, within 
that period, to a state of as complete desolation the 
other flourishing townships of Magnesia, Pelion, 
Ossa, and Olympus. Even on the opposite heights 
of Olympus, across the Vale of Tempe, Rapsani, 
from a thousand wealthy houses, which ten years ago 
it possessed, is now, without being guilty of either 
luxury or tumult, reduced to ten widowed hearths. 

To give a just idea of the prosperity of Ambelakia, 
it would be necessary to describe the poverty and 
depression of the surrounding country, because it is 
by the contrast alone, of the state from whicli it had 
emerged, and the evils it had escaped, that the ener¬ 
gies and institutions which caused its prosperity can 
be duly appreciated. Here were to be seen springing 
again, “ grand and liberal ideas, on a soil devoted 
for twenty centuries to slavery; here the ancient 
Greek character arose, in its early energy, amidst the 
torrents and caverns of Pelion, (Ossa;) and, to say 
all in a word, here were all the talents and virtues of 
ancient Greece, born again in a corner of modern 
Turkey.” 

Had an old commercial emporium, had a conve¬ 
niently situated sea-port, or a provincial chief town. 


MUNICIPALITIES OF TURKEY. 


53 


possessing capital, connexions, and influence, ex¬ 
tended thus rapidly its commerce and prosperity, it 
would have been cited, and justly so, as a proof of 
the good administration which ruled it. What then 
shall we say of the administration that has thus ele¬ 
vated an unknown, a weak, and insignificant hamlet, 
that has not a single field in its vicinity, that had no 
local industry, that had no commercial connexion, no 
advantage of position, was in the vicinity of no manu¬ 
facturing movement, was on the track of no transit 
commerce, was not situated either on a navigable 
river or on the sea, had no harbour even in its vici¬ 
nity, and was accessible by no road save a goat’s 
path among precipices ? With all these local disad¬ 
vantages, it possessed no local advantage whatever 
over the thousand other villages of Thessaly; neither 
did its industry receive an impulse from new dis¬ 
coveries, or secrets of chemistry, or combination of 
mechanical powers. It supplied industrious Ger¬ 
many, not by the perfection of its jennies, but by the 
industry of its spindle and distaff. It taught Mont¬ 
pellier the art of dyeing, not from experimental chairs, 
but because dyeing was with it a domestic and culi¬ 
nary operation, subject to daily observation in every 
kitchen ; and by the simplicity and honesty, not the 
science of its system, it reads a lesson to commercial 
associations, and holds up an example unparalleled 
in the commercial history of Europe, of a joint stock 
and labour company, ably and economically and suc¬ 
cessfully administered, in which the interests of indus¬ 
try and capital were long equally represented. Yet 
the system of administration with which all this is 
connected, is common to the thousand hamlets of 


54 


MUNICIPALITIES OF TURKEY. 


Thessaly that have not emerged from their insignifi¬ 
cance ; but Ambelakia for twenty years was left 
alone. In this short sentence lies the secret of its 
prosperity, and the promise of the regeneration both 
of Turkey and Greece. 

The marine of Greece has been for ten years the 
object of so much inquiry, that I need not enter into 
any detail respecting it. Those who have gone along 
with me in tracing the progress of these various com¬ 
munities to their municipal institutions, will see the 
agency of similar causes in the six hundred vessels, 
of three hundred tons and upwards, which the mari¬ 
time communities of Galaxidi, Missolonghi, Cranidi, 
Spezzia, Hydra, Psara, Cassos, Santorin, &c. pos¬ 
sessed,—all spots out of the way of man and of com¬ 
merce ; while all the great emporiums of trade in the 
Levant together did not possess a dozen native 
Greek vessels of the same class. They will even, 
perhaps, find in these institutions the explanation of 
the origin and spring of prosperity and activity, 
which have so generally been considered unintelligible 
and inexplicable. 

Amongst these communities, the principle of asso¬ 
ciation was carried from their rocks on board their 
vessels. The ship’s company were all owners in the 
vessel, or sharers in the cargo ; labour and capital 
were equally calculated, and one common interest 
guided the whole body. # The moral controul, which 


* Wherever the same system of co-partnership has existed, the 
same surprising energy, enterprize, and intelligence have been the 
result. It is indeed with amazement, mingled with scepticism, that 
we trace the commercial grandeur of the republics of Italy; but 
that scepticism may disappear, when we perceive in them the same 


MUNICIPALITIES OF TURKEY. 


55 


was the enlivening spirit of the municipalities, fol¬ 
lowed them in their speculations afloat; a proof of 
which may be found in this, that their money, and 
other transactions, were carried on only by verbal 
agreement and simple entries. Bonds, and even re¬ 
ceipts, were unknown, yet they had, like the Ambe- 
lakiots, neither judge nor law of established authority. 
What is more singular still is, that a bankruptcy did 

principle, at least in their earliest days, which we see in active 
operation, and producing the same wonderful results, at the present 
moment. The maritime islands of Greece are not solitary witnesses ; 
the whale-men of Nantucket, inhabiting an island too, with a muni¬ 
cipal government, and carrying afloat the subdivisions of interests, 
as the Greeks have done, have extorted the following tribute from 
the eloquence of Burke, who observed them from a distance, but 
saw not the internal springs by which they are put in motion:— 
“ Look at the manner in which this New England people carry on 
the whale fishery. While we follow them among the trembling 
mountains of ice, and behold them penetrating into the deepest 
frozen recesses of Hudson’s and Davis’ Straits; while we are look¬ 
ing for them beneath the Arctic circle, we hear that they have pierced 
into the opposite region of polar cold—that they are at the antipodes, 
and engaged under the frozen serpent of the South. Falkland Island, 
which seemed too remote and too romantic an object for the grasp 
of national ambition, is but a stage and resting-place for their vic¬ 
torious industry. Nor is the equinoxial heat more discouraging to 
them than the accumulated winter of both poles. We learn, that 
while some of them draw the line, or strike the harpoon, on the coast 
of Africa, others run the longitude, and pursue their gigantic game 
along the coasts of Brazil. No sea but what is vexed with their 
fisheries—no climate that is not witness to their toils. Neither the 
perseverance of Holland, nor the activity of France, nor the dexter¬ 
ous and firm sagacity of English enterprise, ever carried this most 
perilous mode of hardy industry to the extent to which it has been 
pursued by this recent people—a people who are still in the gristle, 
and not hardened into manhood.”- Burkes Speech on American 
affairs. 1774. 


56 


MUNICIPALITIES OF TURKEY. 


not, I believe, once occur before the breaking out of 
the revolution. The Hydriots have obtained, and 
merited too, the character of turbulence, yet have we 
looked narrowly at the causes of their turbulence, have 
we made allowance for the difficulties of their situation, 
have we appreciated the qualities they possess? Our 
idea of insubordination implies the existence of a 
government; but in Greece no government ever ex¬ 
isted, save the demoralizing and anti-national sway 
of Capo dTstrias; during which, though their means 
of existence were cut off, these turbulent islanders 
maintained peace among themselves; and though 
they were the focus of the opposition, they conducted 
that opposition with moderation, restrained the vio¬ 
lence of their ruder associates, and sought to influ¬ 
ence the government only by creating and directing 
public opinion. 

I am not advocating the cause of the Hydriots, but 
showing how far the influence of the municipal institu¬ 
tions can extend : it suffices for my object to point to 
the prosperity of the islands before the revolution, 
and the dispositions of the people before the circum¬ 
stances of the revolution disturbed all previous calcu¬ 
lations. I will refer to the remarks of an intelligent 
observer of the Levant, for a just and spirited descrip¬ 
tion of their character, before it was steeled and per¬ 
verted by the war of extermination in which the naval 
islands played so important a part. *•' The Hydriot 
sailors are sedate, well dressed, well bred, shrewdly 
informed, and speculative. They seem to form a class 
in the orders of mankind which has no existence 
amongst us. By their voyages they acquire a libe¬ 
rality of idea which we expect only among gentlemen. 


MUNICIPALITIES OF TURKEY. 


57 


while in their domestic circumstances their conduct 
is suitable to their station.”* They were a class of 
men differing from the classes into which our popula¬ 
tion is divided, but they perfectly resembled those 
who live under like institutions, and who have slipped 
from Turkish anarchy without falling under European 
custom-houses. They had, too, one advantage over their 
compatriots, that of seeing the towns and manners of 
many men. One custom prevalent among this tribe 
of Albanians, for the Hydriots are Albanians, not 
Greeks, and few of the women can even speak Greek, 
is so expressive of the family and social affections 
that are such distinguishing characteristics of men 
living under municipal institutions, that I cannot refrain 
from mentioning it. Brothers make up portions for 
their sisters, and get husbands for them before they 
think of marrying themselves.f 

The southern portion of Pel ion stretches into a 
rocky and barren promontory, which turning to the 
west, encircles two thirds of the Gulf of Volo, and 
terminates in the headland of Trichery. This pro¬ 
montory and the mountain at its base are occupied by 

* Galt. p. 379. 

-j- In some parts of Scotland a feeling of the same kind exists, and 
is sometimes acted on, but is far from producing a practice to be 
compared with that of Hydra. Yet this custom is not to be traced 
among the rude people who have colonized Hydra; we are not ac¬ 
customed to attribute in England to the speculations of commerce, to 
increase of wealth and prosperity, the simple and moral feeling 
which would introduce such a custom among sailors, while it was 
unknown to the shepherds and husbandmen from whom those sailors 
were derived. This is one of those facts which meet us at every 
step at Turkey, which are as much in contradiction with many of 
our current notions as are the political state and commercial policy 
of the two countries. 


58 


MUNICIPALITIES OF TURKEY. 


twenty-four Greek townships, which have been de¬ 
vastated during the revolution; but they have reco¬ 
vered themselves a little, and appeared to me the most 
smiling portion of Roumelie. Dodwell # describes 
them as the most rich and flourishing of the raya 
communities. Miletius, who was a native of one of 
them, has given, in his Geography, minute statistics of 
this little province. They possessed a most important 
traffic in silk and woollen capotes, with which last 
article they supplied the whole of the Levant. At 
the period of their sack by the Turks, they had even 
a professor of chemistry and experimental philosophy, 
and some of the Turkish booty consisted of galvanic 
troughs and electrical machines. The cause of all this 
prosperity and improvement will, of course, be antici¬ 
pated in their emancipation from Turkish anarchy. 
They were either chasia or vacuf, that is, by the 
influence of the seraglio, or the authority of the royal 
mosques, their original terms of capitulation were pro¬ 
tected, they were subtracted from the sway of the 
provincial authorities, and were governed by their 

* “ This delightful spot (M. Pelion) exhibits, in all their rich mix¬ 
ture of foliage and diversity of form, the luxuriantly spreading pla- 
tanus, the majestically robust chesnut, the waving poplar, the 
aspiring cypress, which are happily intermingled with the vine, 
pomegranate, almond, and fig. Here the weary may repose, and 
those who hunger and thirst may be satisfied. Nor is the ear left 
without its portion of delight. The nightingale and other birds are 
heard even in the most frequented streets, and plenty, security, and 
content, are every where diffused. 

“ Pelion is adorned with about four-and-twenty large and wealthy 
villages, some of which merit rather the appellation of cities, inha¬ 
bited by Greeks of strong and athletic forms, who are sufficiently 
brave and numerous to despise their neighbours the Turks/’ 


MUNICIPALITIES OF TURKEY. 


59 


municipal officers, and a bostangi sent from Constanti¬ 
nople. But here this remote influence interfered with 
the municipal institutions; the system of the two 
classes of burghs was different; the elders, relying on 
connexion with the Turks, resisted public responsibi¬ 
lity, and the burgh in which the Turk resided sought 
to domineer over the rest; consequently their political 
happiness was not unalloyed, but their wealth and 
prosperity were, notwithstanding, truly astonishing. 

Amongst these villages I observed a most interest¬ 
ing fact—Turks and Christians on terms of perfect 
equality and good will. The village community 
is far removed from the line of communication, 
strangers never pass through it, so tnat slumbering 
animosities are not awakened; there is one law for all, 
the same contributions for all; they do not pay distinct 
poll, and land, and property taxes, but one tax on 
property, and they compound for the poll tax of the 
whole community, so that the Turks pay their share 
just as the Christians. The industry, prosperity, and 
information of both populations is perfectly similar, 
and religion, though a difference, is not a distinction. 

Chalcidice, which although not a portion of Greece 
proper, played so important a part in her ancient his¬ 
tory, and has left so many illustrations of the colonial 
policy, diplomacy, and foreign relations of Athens and 
Sparta, has in later times merited attention for admi¬ 
nistrative combinations of a most remarkable nature. 

This district owed its emancipation most probably 
to the obligation imposed upon it, of working the 
mines which it contains, and remitting a stipulated 
portion to Constantinople. Belon, who visited it in 
1508, and who has left us so minute a description of 


60 MUNICIPALITIES OF TURKEY. 

the manner of working the mines and of its state at that 
period, makes no mention of such institutions as those 
which existed at a subsequent period, and details a 
different distribution of the proceeds of the mines than 
that which co-existed with those institutions. When 
he visited them, private speculators extracted the ore, 
refined and coined the metal, and sent it in that state 
to Constantinople. The state must have received a 
certain per centage, for he mentions the sum of from 
eighteen to thirty thousand ducats monthly, received 
by government as its portion. The collection of this 
large revenue, from between five and six hundred 
furnaces scattered over the mountains, must have re¬ 
quired a considerable number of agents, whose office 
presented great temptations and little controul. 
By the relaxation of the energy of the Porte, this 
mode of collection must have become inefficient, and 
the fisc, awakened by the sensible decrease of re¬ 
venue, no doubt bethought itself of some expedient 
for correcting the abuse, and adopted that one which 
would naturally present itself to an arbitrary power, 
of compelling the neighbouring villages to take and 
work the mines, and to pay a certain portion of the 
profits, or a certain rent. 

I am the more confirmed in this supposition, by the 
progress of the legislation of the mines under the Ro¬ 
man Empire. First, the government received a tax 
on the produce; as the severity of controul became 
weaker, the treasury was more and more defrauded ; 
it had then recourse to farming the mines, but as cor¬ 
ruption and weakness of the state increased, the 
next step, before their final abandonment, was the 
compelling the wretched inhabitants of the neigh- 


MUNICIPALITIES OP TURKEY. 


01 


bouring villages to undertake the working of them, 
which gave rise, under the lower empire, to the class 
of peasants denominated “ adscripti edebae et me- 
tallis.”* 

It would be very interesting positively to ascer¬ 
tain the manner of the establishment of this little fede¬ 
ration. Supposing it to have originated as I have 
just said, it proves the simplicity with which admi¬ 
nistration can be carried on, when physical force can¬ 
not be employed to rectify legislative errors, and 
when men apply the same common sense to govern¬ 
ment that they do to their private affairs. It is both 
curious and instructing, to see the raya population of 
a Turkish province, sittting down to discuss and to 

* The condition of these serfs bears a close resemblance to the 
state of the raya. They were not slaves, but their labour was com¬ 
pulsory. They were not lixed to the soil, but if they fled they were 
brought back, unless they could guarantee to the community their 
share of the common burdens. Their right of property in their lands 
was unquestioned, as was the right to dispose of them, but on condi¬ 
tion of their obligations being undertaken by the purchasers. They 
were allowed to regulate among themselves their time and services 
to meet the additional burdens imposed on them in consequence of 
their possession of the mines, but the fixed imposts were unmerci¬ 
fully levied, without regard to the productiveness of the mines or the 
decrease of the inhabitants.—See the Codex Theodosicinus de Me- 
tallis , lib. vi. § 9, et lib. xv. passim. 

I have already stated, that when I was in the mining districts, 
subsequently to the devastation by Aboull Abut, identical causes, and 
the common responsibility of the inhabitants, led, in one night, to the 
total dispersion of two villages. Under the empire similar scenes were 
witnessed ; the oppression increasing in proportion to the wretched¬ 
ness of the people, bodies of miners simultaneously abandoned their 
homes. Under Valens, the miners of Dacia, who must have formed 
a considerable body, deserted to the Goths.— At rim. xxxi. 1. 567. 


02 MUNICIPALITIES OF TURKEY. 

decide on what form of administration they should 
adopt. The constitution they formed would have 
done honour, not to the people, but to the learned of 
any country of Europe. From the reasons above 
stated, from the education of the municipal institu¬ 
tions, and from the facts of the case, I believe that 
this federation was carefully entered into, that it was 
negociated and bargained for with the Porte; and 
that its liberties were solemnly guaranteed by a fir¬ 
man, which, for the consideration of a stipulated sum, 
granted them immunity from all legal and illegal ex¬ 
actions, regulations, services, &c., defined the limits 
of their authority, and constituted them a corporate 
body. Such firmans were perfectly in accordance 
with the principles of the Turkish government, which 
recognized in its agents no controul over any man or 
body of men who were not criminal and who had 
paid their taxes; and then the criminal is punished, 
or ought to be, by the decision of the cadi, and not 
by decision of the pasha; and for non-payment, pro¬ 
perty is attachable, but neither person, nor lands, 
nor implements. 

The sultan, finding the revenues of the mines rapidly 
diminishing under the system of which Belon has left 
us the description, has doubtless offered to the rayas 
of the surrounding villages the mines to work, on 
the condition of paying to the imperial mint a certain 
quantity of metal. As all the workmen, and probably 
many of the capitalists belonged to the villages, the 
proposition held out advantages both to the villages 
and to the treasury. The treasury, of course, fixed 
its demand far above the sum it was wont to receive. 


MUNICIPALITIES OF TURKEY. 


63 


and the mining districts were relieved from the pro¬ 
fits, exactions, and interference of the government 
agents; and then they could equally apportion 
their burthens by the efficient and economical con- 
troul of their municipal institutions. On accepting 
this charge, they naturally had to alter the sys¬ 
tem of working the mines, as the tribute to be paid 
to government was the ore extracted, so that the 
contribution of each individual towards the commu¬ 
nal burthens, became compulsory (angaria) labour for 
the extracting of that ore. So under the Roman 
empire, on a similar change of the administration of 
the mines, forced labour, on account of the commu¬ 
nity, came to be substituted for hired labour, on ac¬ 
count of capitalists. The mining communities would 
represent to government the necessity of joining 
with them the whole of the surrounding villages for 
the undertaking of so extensive a concern, and the 
supporting of so great a responsibility. The condi¬ 
tions, no doubt after consideration and debate, ap- 
appear to be settled thus:—the district to pay a 
certain weight of silver, which, at a later period,, 
amounted to five hundred and fifty pounds, and twelve 
principal boroughs to form an administration of their 
own, having subordinate to them three hundred and 
sixty villages. # 

The miniature constitution which they then formed, 
is equally unique in its character, though it is just 

* There were two federations in Chalcidice known by the names 
of Chasia and Mademo-Choria. In what respect they differed, 
whether or not they were subject to the same government, I cannot 
recollect. Having been carried off by bandits in the vicinity of the 
ancient Sane, the notes I had made on the spot were lost. 


()4 MUNICIPALITIES OF TURKEY. 

such a one as any body of rayas in Turkey would 
have adopted, had occasion presented itself for exer¬ 
cising its judgment in such matters. 

Their treaty with the Porte bound them to obe¬ 
dience to the madem emins, the only Turkish autho¬ 
rity, and, indeed, the only Turk that could reside in 
their district, in matters of civil and correctional 
police, but stipulated entire emancipation from all 
interference with their internal administration. The 
payment of the stipulated quantity of metal dis¬ 
charged them from all other government imposts, and 
from spahilic, (contribution to the military chiefs,) and 
for their caratch or poll-tax, the community com¬ 
pounded with the collector of the pachalic; but the 
district and the Turkish governor were rendered 
independent both of the pacha and mekkiameh (judi¬ 
catory) of Salonique. As for their internal adminis¬ 
tration, that of each village was, of course, the muni¬ 
cipal system prevailing throughout the country. The 
general representative system, adopted in the mining 
districts, was perhaps an imitation of the monastic 
administration of Mount Athos. A central committee 
was formed of deputies from the twelve boroughs. 
Each subject of discussion was debated by the dif¬ 
ferent municipalities separately; if the whole com¬ 
mittee did not agree, the members returned again to 
the municipal bodies, to re-argue the question, as it 
was necessary for them to be unanimous* upon every 


* It was curious to observe, at the election of members of the as¬ 
sembly of Argos, how deeply implanted in the minds of the Greeks 
was the principle of the members being mandatories of their consti¬ 
tuents. The vote of the members was looked on as the vote of the dis- 


MUNICIPALITIES OF TURKEY. 


G5 


measure. To secure this unanimity, no decision was 
considered valid without the seal of the committee; 
and that seal was formed of twelve co-partments, one 

trict. It is true, Capodistrias sought to convert this feeling into a 
tool for party purposes ; but it never originated in his suggestions. 
The fears of the people were aroused by the most insidious means > — 
their virtues and their vices were alike worked on; they were led to 
suspect treachery from their members, and a coalition of the primates 
and capetani against the central government, so that they drew up, in 
some places, the conditions according to which they empowered the 
members to vote, and exacted the most solemn promises for the observ¬ 
ance of these conditions ; in other places, declared they would ratify no 
decision in opposition to their instructions; and in some cases even 
threatened to burn the houses of their deputies, and hang them them¬ 
selves, if they betrayed their trust. Does not this forcibly recall the 
deputies carrying their instructions to the Amphictyonic Assembly ; 
making their report on their return; depositing copies of the acts; ac¬ 
counting for their votes ; and requiring, to make these valid, ratifica¬ 
tions of the yepovaia and the eKKXrjaria of the constituent city ? 

When Capodistrias’ violation of the principles of the constitution 
had raised a loud and universal cry for the maintenance of the con¬ 
stitution, and afterwards for a national assembly, these words were 
not mere shibboleths of faction or terms borrowed from Europe. Two 
answers were given to the president, which, even if invented, prove 
the feeling and the intelligence of the people on these points. The 
president asked an illiterate Greek why he had signed a petition for 
the maintenance of the constitution, and what he meant by the words. 
The peasant answered with ready indignation, “ The covenant, 
which teaches us our duty to you, and you, your duty to us !” Not 
long before the termination of his unhappy career, the president went 
into Maina, where disaffection was strongest, to attempt to pacify 
them. At a meeting with some of the chiefs, he protested that he 
was willing to adhere to the acts of the Congress of Argos, but they 
persisted in demanding the convocation of a national congress. He 
petulantly asked what use there could be in a national congress if he 
adhered to the decrees of the last: one of them replied, “ When 
Moses having received the law from God, broke that law, he had to 
appear before God again, and to receive anew the laws he had 


66 


MUNICIPALITIES OF TURKEY. 


of which was entrusted to each municipality. These 
portions had to be united before the seal could be 
used. What I have so often repeated respecting 
the effect of direct taxation, will sufficiently show that 
there was nothing unreasonable in the requiring 
perfect unanimity in all their decisions, so long as the 
municipal officers were freely elected, and subject to 
public responsibility. The unanimity required in the 
decisions of the committee is conclusive as to the 
purity of election, without which such unanimity 
could never have existed, as to have allowed the seal 
to be used at all. # 

Each of the twelve boroughs had a certain number 
of the villages attached to it, and these corporations 
were represented in the boroughs on which they de¬ 
pended. But here, as elsewhere, the absence of all 
formality in the operation of the system, the absence 
of all familiarity with names and principles, the 
absence of all idea of rights and prerogatives in the 
people, render such investigations exceedingly diffi¬ 
cult and obscure. 

The mining association, whatever were the prin¬ 
ciples of its administration, might be supposed to be 
indebted for its prosperity solely to the speculation 
for which alone it was primarily established. It was 
bound to pay a very heavy sum to government, as rent 
for mines, which it was not likely could ever be 

broken. You, who are neither our conqueror nor our hereditary 
chief, possess your power by the constitution you received from the 
people, you have broken that constitution—you must come to the 
people again to have it restored to you.” 

* Amongst the islands it was customary to have the common seal 
formed of as many co-partments as there were burghs in the island. 


MUNICIPALITIES OF TURKEY. 67 

worked with advantage, under the management of a 
committee of little farmers. The speculation turned 
out a most unfortunate one. For several years pre¬ 
vious to the revolution, the mines had ceased to be 
worked at all; yet so chary were they of the institu¬ 
tions granted them for the working those mines, that 
no supplications were made to Constantinople to be 
relieved from its conditions, but Spanish dollars were 
yearly bought and melted down, and sent to Con¬ 
stantinople, as if just extracted from the mines ; they 
asked no exception on account of their poverty, 
claimed no remission on account of their exhaustion, 
but anxiously contributed the required amount in the 
wonted form, to check all inquiry, and to take away 
all pretence for annulling a contract which, as a spe¬ 
culation, had been so unfortunate, but which had 
been so inestimable in granting them the free ex¬ 
ercise of their own municipal institutions, which gave 
them in unshackled industry, and in the surface of 
their exuberant soil, greater treasures than in its hid¬ 
den veins. 

The only remaining point of inquiry and com¬ 
parison between the races possessing or not possess¬ 
ing municipal institutions, is their increase or decrease 
of population. The absence of all statistical docu¬ 
ments renders this inquiry very difficult, and the re¬ 
sults uncertain; any such calculation of the rayas 
could only be formed on the caratch at which the pro¬ 
vinces have been rated; and even if we were pos¬ 
sessed of these data, the problem would be nearly as 
far from solution. As a fixed number of papers is 
always issued, and that number, 1,600,000, gives a 
raya population of about 6,000,000 as the calculation 

f 2 


C>8 


MUNICIPALITIES OF TURKEY. 


of some former period, but of the year and details I 
am ignorant; I will not therefore attempt any thing 
like calculation on the subject, but offer a few con¬ 
siderations tending to prove a great diminution in the 
Turkish population. The Albanians are a people so 
completely distinct from the others, that I do not in¬ 
tend to enter into any detail respecting them. The 
Bulgarians have been subject to the influence of both 
systems, by their division into the two religions ; I 
shall, therefore, confine myself to the consideration 
of the Mussulman Turk, and Christian Greek races. 

The numbers of Turks which at different times 
passed into Europe, the numbers of the soldiers set¬ 
tled in the conquered provinces, leave us no room to 
doubt that the Turkish settlements, at the period of 
the final subjugation of the eastern empire, were 
very considerable; their population enjoying ease and 
wealth by the labour of the Christian population, 
might be expected rapidly to increase; it was besides 
augmented by proselytism. The ranks of the Janis¬ 
saries -were swelled by the tax which long existed of 
every fifth Christian male child ; and the harems 
were filled with Greek women, whose fruitfulness 
was so much abstracted from the Greek population : 
yet the Turks have dwindled away.* There is a 
class of agricultural Turks, who cultivate their 
ground, and live completely distinct and separate 
from the Christians ; but in other parts of the coun¬ 
try I do not think the Turks amount to one-tenth of 

* It must not be forgotten that the depopulation of the country, 
traced by the ruins of villages, applies exclusively to Turkish 
villages—the vestiges remaining are minarets of mosques and 
Turkish burying-grounds. 


MUNICIPALITIES OF TURKEY. 


69 


the Greek population, if to so much. The only 
means we have of getting at the Turkish fixed popu¬ 
lation is by the military fiefs, established at the con¬ 
quest. It is impossible to say what number of souls 
ought to be allowed to each fief; but as there were 
in all Roumelie 1,075* of the first, and 8,194 of the 
second class ; if we allow 100 persons to each of the 
first, and 50 -j- to each of the last, we shall obtain a 
total of 507,300 Turks of both sexes, independent of 
the tribes that were subsequently converted, and of 
those who followed the early conquerors, and were 
settled before or after the fall of Constantinople, 
and who, as agriculturists, occupied distinct districts 
of the country. It seems certainly impossible to 
rate below 500,000 the Turkish population attached 
to the military fiefs throughout the country; and if 
this calculation is as low as can be made for the 
whole country, there can be no objection to apply¬ 
ing the same rule to ascertain the minimum of the 
Turkish population, established in any single district 
at the period of the conquest, and this will give us 
some grounds of comparison between the former and 
present Turkish population ; of course it must be 
borne in mind that the calculation we make of the 
former number is the lowest that can be taken. 

Negropont contains 12 Ziamets and 188 Tima- 


* The numbers are taken from Rieaut, who had means of access 
to the public offices at Constantinople. 

t For every 3000 aspers of revenue, or one kilitch, (sword,) one 
horseman was to be furnished. The Timars were under 20,000 
aspers, and the Ziamets above that sum ; thus the first might have 
to furnish seven horsemen, and the latter thirty, or even more.—See 
(VOhsson, vol. vii. p. 373. 


70 


MUNICIPALITIES OF TURKEY. 


riots ; which would give, calculating as above, 10,600. 
At the breaking out of the Greek war it was about 
7,000, including Albanians,—the Greeks 36,000. 
In Carleli a similar calculation would give us 6,950. 
At the Greek revolution they did not exceed 2,000,* 
natives and Albanians,—the Greeks were 22,000. 
Yet these provinces were out of the way of wars, 
and little liable to be drained by military service. 

Of the political system of Turkey, the Turks reaped 
all the benefits, the rayas endured all the suffering, 
evils, and wrongs ; yet how different, even in this 
question of population, has been the progress of the 
two people! The deplorable state of Roumelie, 
during the last struggles of the eastern empire, has 
been recorded by the Byzantine writers; and the 
disorder and misery thus recorded exceed, if it is 
possible, those of recent date. Phranza's account of 
the then Christian Albanians is certainly not exceeded 
by the history of the ravages they lately were guilty of. 
I have seen Joannina distracted by internal faction 
and feuds, and encircled by four contending hordes; 
but still saw nothing to equal the horrors recorded by 
Barlettius, &c. which seem to have been for centuries 
every day occurrences. Our oldest travellers and 


* In consequence of the confusion of the limits of the different 
districts, it is exceedingly difficult to make totals from such statistical 
materials as can be obtained. The Greek commission gave the fol¬ 
lowing numbers for the districts which composed, I imagine, the 
Turkish sandjac of Carleli:—Vociios, Turks, 1500; Greeks, 4,500; 
Xeromeros, Vonizza, Valthos, no Turks, and 18,000 Greeks; making 
a total of 22,000 Greeks, and 1,500 Turks. Col. Leake calculated 
the Turks at 3,000; and without any knowledge of either of these 
calculations, I had estimated them at 350 fires. 


MUNICIPALITIES OF TURKEY. 


71 


writers, Verantius (1553); Belon, at the end of the 
sixteenth century; Brown, in 1669; Rycaut, &c., 
describe similar scenes, which their successors repeat, 
with never omitted predictions of the approaching 
and immediate dissolution of the Turkish empire. 
Thus, at the period of the conquest, the country was 
frightfully depopulated; its depopulation has struck 
every observer from that period, up to the present 
hour; every observer has seen, besides, numbers of the 
Greeks destroyed ; numbers of them have been forced 
as children, or as women, to contribute to the num¬ 
bers of the dominant faith; besides this, provinces 
have been swept off wholesale. How often has the 
Morea been left a waste ! yet through all these trials 
and losses the Greeks exist, and exist, at least, in as 
great numbers as at the period of their subjugation,* 
while their masters have dwindled, notwithstanding 
all the means taken to augment their numbers. What 
does this say for the municipal system ? 

I have already mentioned the corrupt aspect of 
the municipalities in the large cities and sea-port 
towns, where they come under the observation of 
Europeans ; but I think I have also accounted for the 
difference by the difference of the functions they 
have to perform.f They apparently justify all the 

* The laborious and accurate researches of Col. Leake between 
the years 1805 and 1810, led him to suppose that the Greek popula¬ 
tion was decidedly increasing. 

•j- The corporations in towns have been repeatedly noticed by tra¬ 
vellers, especially the esnafs of Constantinople, and the division of 
the trades into classes with deacons, as described in the subjoined 
extract. The peculiar and characteristic feature of the constitutions 
1 am desribing, and which have so generally escaped observation, is 
their being rural and agricultural. “ At Cairo, and in all the other 
cities of the east, every trade has a head, who is entrusted with au- 


72 


MUNICIPALITIES OF TURKEY. 


odium that the most prejudiced are disposed to 
throw on the Greek character. It must be recol¬ 
lected, however, that the Europeans who inhabit the 
scales of the Levant—to say nothing of the Franks, 
or native descendants of Europeans—are not the 
fittest men for observing or judging in matters so 
foreign to their ideas and avocations. Their interests 
are so diametrically opposed to that of the Greeks, 
that it is impossible for them to be impartial; and 
interest and prejudice both agree in observing and 
exaggerating the evil that is but too obtrusive, and 
in overlooking the good which, unless sought, is not 
to be found, and which, indeed, can be appreciated 
only by comparison. It is from this class of men 
that travellers receive their first, and almost univer¬ 
sally their only, impressions. 

But it is not ouly among the Franks or Europeans 
visiting the East, that we find contempt for these 
institutions, or ignorance of their existence. The 
Greeks themselves, even under the direct influence 
of their most beneficial operation, have hitherto had 
no just conception of their effect on themselves, or of 
their value or importance, compared with the eco¬ 
nomy of more civilized administrations. The peasant 
clings to them by the pressure of his necessities, for 

thority over them, knows every individual of the body to which he 
belongs, and is in some measure answerable for them to government. 
Those heads of trades preserve order among the artizans, who are a 
numerous body. Even the women of the town, and thieves, have each 
a head in the same manner; not that chief or robber is a profession 
licensed by law, but the head is appointed to facilitate the recovery 
of stolen goods. At Tripoli, in Barbary, the black slaves choose a 
chief, who is acknowledged by the regency, and this is a means by 
which the revolt or elopement of those slaves is prevented.”— Nie¬ 
buhr's Travels in Arabia, vol. i. ch. 4. 


MUNICIPALITIES OF TURKEY. 


73 


the mitigation of impending penalties or of immediate 
wrongs ; but they are associated in his mind witli the 
tyranny of the Turkish government. Little does he 
dream that equality of burthens, freedom of opinion, 
an equal voice in communal matters, the election with 
the payment of the village schoolmaster, the right of 
rejecting the parochial priest, all which he looks upon 
as portions of his existence and his wrongs, would, 
amongst civilized nations, be called by such terms as 
privileges and rights, and that they are benefits which 
no nation in Europe possesses, and towards which 
they are groping only in the dark. 

Question a raya about his municipal institutions, 
he will not understand what you mean ; nay, he will 
describe to you the state of his village, of his own 
family and affairs, without giving you reason to sup¬ 
pose the existence of any species of local administra¬ 
tion whatever, unless he has a complaint to make. I 
have elsewhere said, that the political intelligence of 
the rayas was remarkable, because they could imme¬ 
diately trace evils to their sources, and oppression to 
its authors; it seems a contradiction now to say, that 
they have no just comprehension of institutions of such 
vital importance; but this apparent contradiction is, 
perhaps, referable to the contrast between the politi¬ 
cal instruction of the mass of the people under direct 
and indirect taxation. With us, men are more con¬ 
versant with principles than with details, with names 
than with tilings—names are necessary for the press, 
for society, and they often cloy curiosity, which, but 
for them, would apply itself to facts. Facts, by our 
complications, are of difficult access, and the refer- 
ance of effects to causes too fatiguing for common 


74 


MUNICIPALITIES OF TURKEY. 


attention. A labourer in England cannot be ex¬ 
pected to calculate, in the price of a pound of tea and 
sugar, how much he contributes to the support of 
government, how much he pays for the collection of 
custom, how much to the East India proprietor, how 
much to the Jamaica planter, and how much to the 
grocer, who has advanced the capital, &c.; conse¬ 
quently, he cannot trace to their sources the influences 
that affect him, and if he complains, it is of wrongs 
for which he himself can suggest no remedy. A 
labourer in Turkey has no such complications to 
unravel; he knows perfectly who takes his money, 
and can judge of the justice or injustice of its ap¬ 
propriation. 

But the raya has never been taught principles by 
political discussion ; he has no conception of benefits 
flowing from these institutions, operating through the 
moral character impressed by them on the community;* 
indeed I have only been enabled to describe them by 
substituting contrasts for details, and by pointing 
out the evil they prevent, rather than the good they 
produce. Their mission is, to repel disturbing princi¬ 
ples, not to create rights, which word can only apply 
to nations emancipating themselves from feudal vil- 
lanage, for right is an exemption from disquali¬ 
fication. In Turkey there are no disqualifications 
which affect the operation of these institutions ; there¬ 
fore, though they have a perfect comprehension of 
the word wrong, they have none whatever of rights: 

* La raison la necessity et des besoins reels furent les seules legis- 
lateurs qui les dicterent; la raison des particuliers qui n’etoit point 
encore diderente de la raison publique, avoit ete la seule et Tunique 
loi .—Recherches sur le Despotmne Oriental . Londres. 1762, p. 78. 


MUNICIPALITIES OF TURKEY. 


75 


they have not even such a term, and would translate 
ours SiKaiu/Lia, act of justice. It is not then to be 
wondered at, that the raya should observe and inves¬ 
tigate wrongs which are positive and material, while 
he is blind to negative and relative advantages, which 
even we can only appreciate and describe by contrast. 

Thus neglected and unknown, this system, com¬ 
bining interests and opinions, never exciting attention 
or courting observation, was gradually preparing the 
people for a change ; but still so firmly controlled the 
movement it created, that no bolder spirit could 
break through the common bond of prejudice or sub¬ 
mission ; opinion, as in most other societies, did not 
divide itself into movement and resistance, and thus 
a common observer would have supposed it station¬ 
ary, because it was free from fluctuations, while for 
that very reason its progress was more certain, 
because it created no alarm, and suffered from no re¬ 
action. This explains how the revolution of Greece 
appeared an impossibility to those who had observed 
the Greeks previously, and judged by appearances. 

But a very few days subsequent to the elevation 
of the white cross of Constantine, as a recovered 
national emblem, an assembly was held of free Greeks. 
Throughout the revolution, an intelligent attachment 
has ever manifested itself for a representative form of 
government. To what can this national conviction, or 
rather feeling, be referred, save to the remote influ¬ 
ences of the municipal system; and to what else the 
peaceable industry of the people, under such demo¬ 
ralizing and disturbing causes, to which Count Bul- 
gari (under the dictation of Capodistrias) thus bore 
testimony in a despatch to Count Nesselrode ? “ It 


76 


MUNICIPALITIES OF TURKEY. 


is a remarkable phenomenon, to see a whole people, 
after seven years of war and anarchy, resume the 
peaceable habits of labour and submission to the 
laws,* without being constrained by any force what¬ 
ever. The tranquillity that reigns in insular and con¬ 
tinental Greece, the security of the roads, the absence 
of disorder and crime, so common to a people libe¬ 
rating itself from the double yoke of tyranny and 
revolution, prove to demonstration that Greece is 
worthy of the good government of which it can 
already appreciate the benefits 

The difficulties America had to contend with in her 
first elections; the troubles and disorders which the 
exercise of the new prerogative gave rise to in France, 
would lead us to anticipate in such a country as 
Greece difficulties and disorders of the most serious 
nature. Far from this, the right of suffrage, the mode 
of election, never became even subjects of discussion ; 
they were not spoken of, they were not heard of; 
and yet it is notorious that, in the three first national 
assemblies, before the arrival of Capodistrias, the 
best men that were to be found were returned; and 
though their decisions were of little avail, at least 
they expressed a liberality of sentiment and opinion 
that is quite astonishing, and leaves us to wonder 
whence it was derived.J Can this representative 


* Capodistrias had, at this period, governed the country for ten 
months, and the orders, rescripts, ordinances, circulars, proclama¬ 
tions, administrative letters and decisions, having force of law, ex¬ 
ceeded ten thousand!! 

f “ Poros, Dec. 22, 1828.” 

t For instance, the immediate and unanimous abolition of slavery, 


MUNICIPALITIES OF TURKEY. 


77 


tactic, if I may so call it, be referred to any thing 
save the self-government in which they had been 
before exercised ? I should think not; and even if 
the facts and observations I have already offered were 
to go for nothing, the immediate adoption by freed 
Greece of the representative form of government, 
without difficulty, or even discussion, would prove, 
that in Turkey elements of political regeneration exist, 
which, overlooked before they were called into action, 
have been misinterpreted in their operation, and are 
unfortunately not even at present understood by the 
Greeks themselves, in whose minds old institutions 
and practice are connected with past tyranny; and 
who, in their anxiety to imitate Europe, have hitherto 
overlooked or despised their own municipalities, 
which Europe may well envy. 

We have now traced these institutions in the 
character of the people; we have shown how they 
have preserved the raya population among whom 
they prevailed, and perpetuated uniformity of creed, 
doctrines, and opinions, of language, disposition, and 
character; while they have kept them distinct from 
all other races that live under the same general 
government, and while other races, less oppressed, 
but less strongly knit together, have been swallowed 


the liberation of captives without ransom—where did they learn 
this ? Did the Turks, who are supposed to have tutored them in all 
their faults, teach them this? Was it the example of Europe, and 
her speculative slavery, that taught these emancipated rayas to 
abolish the slavery of their enemies by a public decree, when scarcely 
one of the members of the assembly had not some connexion of 
blood or interest with slaves retained by the Turks ? This is one 
of the most remarkable features of the revolution. 


78 


MUNICIPALITIES OF TURKEY". 


up by Islamism: we have seen how the activity 
they called forth, furnished resources to the Turkish 
empire, and how the submission they inculcated and 
produced, allowed that supremacy so long to exist : 
we have then followed them in the powerful impulse 
they gave to communities under different circum¬ 
stances; engaged in commerce, manufactures, and 
agriculture, relieved from all other jurisdiction than 
their own : we have seen an unknown village of 
Pelion conducting vast commercial speculations on 
the Elbe, the Danube, the Rhine—the barren rocks 
of Magnesia furnishing the fertile but enslaved plains 
of Thessaly with fruit and vegetables in their season : 
we have seen remote and unfrequented rocks, 
sprinkled over the Egean and Ionian seas, rising to 
the possession of a marine and a commercial pros¬ 
perity, next to miraculous; and all, independent of 
any political institution whatever, and under no other 
influence save that of the municipal system, which is 
common to the rest of the fertile land and heavenly 
climate, whose neglected spots have displayed ex¬ 
amples of such unparalleled prosperity. What would 
that country then become if left to itself? If the dis¬ 
regarded seeds, fallen among stones and briers, have 
produced sixty and a hundred fold, what harvest 
might be expected from the deep soil, if allowed to 
bring forth the seed slumbering in its breast ? 


79 


CHAPTER V. 

FINANCES OF TURKEY. 

CC I admire — I am filled with astonishment at the 
individual instruction and intelligence spread through 
every class of the population—at the perfection of your 
industry, at your useful works and scientific inven¬ 
tions, at the discipline of your troops, at the subordi¬ 
nation of your civil officers, and at the strict execution 
of your laws ; but—cannot you raise your revenue 
without embarrassing your commerce ?” 

This was the question of an intelligent Tunisian, 
late envoy from that state to France, disposed enthu¬ 
siastically to admire the progress of Europe in every 
branch of science, though unable to conceive the 
advantages of our indirect taxation ; yet doubting 
the advantages of the Turkish system, obscured as it 
is by every species of misrule, when he saw nations 
in every other respect so superior to his own, univer¬ 
sally and strongly wedded to an opposite plan. The 
same question has been asked by a portion of a 
nation across the Atlantic. An intelligent people, 
whose ideas of government are derived from Europe, 
are dissatisfied with their administration, only on 


80 


FINANCES OF TURKEY. 


that point which is opposed to the only practice of 
Turkey which an intelligent Turk admires and clings 
to.* The practice of Turkey then, whilst a very ma¬ 
terial feature in her internal administration, is interest¬ 
ing, as, I may almost say, a new fact bearing on, 
perhaps, the most important political question which 
agitates practically, even when not avowedly, the 
whole of Europe. 

A superficial glance at the governments of Europe 
shows an administration constantly employed in ad¬ 
justing burthens, in shifting them from one shoulder to 
another, exciting discontent and resistance even by 
its most impartial measures ; a people ever dissatisfied 
with, and impatient of, taxation, but less impatient 
of the weight of the burthens than of the mode of 
imposition ; and a penal code, the major part of which 
little coincides with public opinion, containing a nu¬ 
merous catalogue of punishments for crimes created 
by fiscal measures. 

Is it therefore surprising that this complicated and 
embarrassing legislation, this individual resistance of 
each separate interest, which becomes general resist¬ 
ance on the part of the people, and the infliction of 
severe punishments for crimes, which are infractions 
of no moral law, (I allude merely to direct and tangible 
effects of the system,) appear to those whose expe¬ 
rience is confined to Europe alone, unfortunate, but 


* In South America other views seem gaining ground, as appears 
from a decree of the president of Guatemala, abolishing the prohibi¬ 
tion of Spanish trade, with this preamble :— 

“ Considering that restrictions on trade are directly prejudicial to 
the public revenue, and to trade itself, and deprive the whole nation 
of advancement in agriculture and industry, &c.” Nov. 24, 1832. 


FINANCES OF TURKEY. 


81 


necessary conditions of the existence of a govern¬ 
ment? No one would deny that the efficiency of a 
government would be immensely increased, its cha¬ 
racter elevated, the resistance, opposition, and dis¬ 
content of the people prevented, and that the penal 
code, losing half its cruelty, would gain double effi¬ 
cacy, by not placing morality and law in opposition— 
if the revenue were raised without legislative inter¬ 
ference with commerce. 

Considering the immense difficulties, the tempta¬ 
tions, the dangers, that surround a government that 
interferes with the exchange of industry, under the 
pretence either of raising a revenue, or of increasing 
internal prosperity, one might suppose that it is 
impossible for any very extensive dominion to exist, 
under such a system: and history will not disprove 
the supposition; for no great empire that the world 
has ever seen, the Assyrian, Babylonian, that of 
Cyrus, of Alexander, or of Charlemagne, of the 
Romans, or the Saracens, raised its revenue except 
by direct taxation; and why had the last, and not 
the least, of conquerors less hold on the countries he 
overran? At least, it is a singular coincidence, that 
the first of the great conquerors who has laid his hand 
on commerce, not as a common spoliator, but in the 
fatal character of a legislator, should have outlived 
' the empire he had created.* 


* “ The Berlin decree could not fail to cause a re-action against 
the emperor s fortune, by raisingmp ivhole nations against him. The 
hurling of twenty kings from their thrones would have excited less 
hatred than this contempt for the wants of nations. This profound 
ignorance of the maxims of political economy caused general priva¬ 
tion and misery, which, in their turn, created general hostility. It 


82 


FINANCES OF TURKEY. 


But ancient history nowhere shows us any thing to 
be compared to the fiscal regulations of modern 
Europe. In the early periods of the commerce of 
the Mediterranean, violence and bloodshed were the 
proverbial concomitants of commercial enterprise. 
Hercules, not Hermes, was the titular divinity of the 
Phenician colonists. There we do find traces of 
commercial legislation apparently resembling that of 
Europe ; but fortunately, their commercial prohi¬ 
bitions were never mixed up with questions of finance. 
We see the Carthaginians drowning merchants who 
approached an interdicted port, or punishing with 
death tributaries, who dared to sow a species of 
pulse, which was an export of Carthage; # but we 
find nowhere any trace of a so-termed protecting 
duty. As far back as history can reach, among civilized 
and uncivilized nations, under theocracies, monar¬ 
chies, or republics—men, land, and capital, in money 
or houses, or in other tangible objects, have always 
been directly taxed. Amid all the varied experience 
that centuries, and thousands of tribes of men afford, 
the principle of raising the revenue was invariably 
the same, the difference consisting merely in the mode, 

is necessary to have witnessed, as I have, the numberless vexations 
and miseries created by the unfortunate ‘ continental system ,’ to un¬ 
derstand the mischief its author did to Europe, and how much that 
mischief contributed to Buonaparte’s fall.”— Bourrienne's Memoirs of 
Napoleon, p. 364. 

* A species of pulse is at present sold, toasted, all over the East— 
may not this be a relic of a protective measure of Carthage ? The 
Bosmium, a species of pulse, was an important export of Carthage, and 
lest it should be cultivated elsewhere, it was toasted before exporta¬ 
tion .—See Arist. de Mirab. and notes to the Imperial Quarto , Paris 
edition of Strabo, xv. 8. 


FINANCES OF TURKEY. 


83 


the season of collection, the objects, or the classes 
more or less severely taxed. 

Commerce, at times, is found entirely free from all 
imposts whatever; at other times it has been exposed 
to arbitrary impositions and tolls. Amongst the 
Greeks, the Romans, and the Mussulmans, it has not 
contributed to the revenue of the state; but it has 
been lightly taxed for municipal purposes, the tax 
being levied for the repairing of roads and harbours, 
and, indeed, generally applied to that purpose. No 
people has ever approached the Mussulmans in the 
establishment of communications, bridges, roads, and 
public works of all descriptions ; they were the first 
of nations to introduce regular posts, by these com¬ 
munications were kept up with the greatest rapi¬ 
dity between the remotest parts of their Indian domi¬ 
nions. They were essentially a commercial people, 
whose commerce extended from the Indian Archi¬ 
pelago to the Atlantic; their great works for the 
benefit of transport might have therefore entitled 
them to press heavily on commerce, yet from an 
examination of their finances in all countries, in ancient 
and in modern times —in Spain, in the Mogul empire 
before its fall, in India, in Turkey itself, in Greece— 
it would appear that the uncertain revenue (indirect 
taxes) never exceeded ten per cent, of the whole 
revenue.* 


* In the governments of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa, when the 
two branches of revenue were separated in 1789 and 1790, the indi¬ 
rect taxes did not amount even to four per cent., the total jumma 
was Sa. Rs. 2, 65, 45, 811, the sayer, or variable revenue from cus¬ 
toms, and excise, transport duty, &c. were 10, 67, 111.— Harring¬ 
tons Land Revenue, Introd, vol. ii. 

G 2 


84 


FINANCES OF TURKEY. 


The mixed system of commercial restriction and 
revenue collection which has covered Europe with 
custom-houses, though it may be regarded as the off¬ 
spring of the feudal system, is yet only a posthumous 
child. William, the great founder of feudalism in 
England, raised his enormous revenue, which some 
calculate as equal to ten millions sterling of our pre¬ 
sent money, without one indirect tax. It was the 
Scotch wars of Edward I., that first led to the impo¬ 
sition of three-pence per pound on commerce, and 
then English navigation extended from the Baltic to 
the Adriatic. Under Edward III., the poundage was 
raised to the rates common to the rest of Europe, that 
was sixpence in the pound, or per cent.; but the 
destruction or the perversion of the municipal princi¬ 
ple, # rendered direct taxation so galling to the people, 
when they began to enjoy a little political freedom, and 
so dangerous to the government, that the indirect 
mode acquired favour in the eyes of both. 

That system has now so deeply rooted itself amongst 

* The insurrection of Wat Tyler in particular was a sudden out¬ 
break of popular indignation at a direct tax ; not at its amount nor 
its pressure, not at the inequality of its repartition, nor at the inex¬ 
pediency of its appropriation, but at the disgusting and outrageous 
conduct of the government agents for its collection, which of course 
would have been entirely avoided if the municipal bodies had been 
the organs of taxation. The tax in question was a poll-tax—a tax 
now fallen into strange disuse and discredit, but once an important 
branch of revenue. It was equally graduated, and spared neither 
noble nor placemen. The highest on the scale paid 265 times as 
much as the lowest. Dukes, 6/. 13s. 4 d. ; earls and countesses, 4/. ; 
barons,cannerets,and baronesses, and knights, 21.; bachelors, esquires, 
and their widows, 1/.; judges, 5 l.; sergeants, 21. ; the mayor of Lon¬ 
don, 4/.; aldermen and other mayors, 21.; merchants, 13s. 4 d.; 
tradesmen, according to their property, from 6s. to 6d. — Plac. 
Pari, iii. p. 57. 


FINANCES OF TURKEY. 


85 


us, so overspread us with its chill and blighting shadow, 
that even our vision is intercepted ; and while we look 
with proud satisfaction on all the discoveries and the 
progress that has illustrated modern Europe, we seem 
not to perceive, that in every quarter of the globe, and 
in all ages, a financial system has existed the very re¬ 
verse of ours ; we look upon a revenue raised directly 
as an anomaly and an exception, whereas the indi¬ 
rectly-raised revenues of modern Europe are excep¬ 
tions in the experience of the worlds 

Attaching the importance I do to the direct system 
in the individual case of Turkey, I have been led into 
these observations, with the view of showing that 
that system is no hazardous experiment, that it is no 
deviation from ancestral wisdom or concession to 
modern theorists, and that it is neither the rude expe¬ 
dient of a barbarous people, nor the mere caprice of 
an Oriental despot. 

Looking at the financial organization of Turkey on 
paper, nothing can appear more complicated or unin- 

* It is curious to observe, how completely puzzled our early ad¬ 
ministrators in India appear to have been with the system they found 
prevailing there. Commissioners for settling the land revenue in 
1785, thus express themselves : “ In forming conclusions on this sub¬ 
ject, and indeed, in all our reasonings concerning the revenue of 
Bengal, we cannot too carefully avoid the comparison between the 
customs and institutions that prevail in this country, and those which 
are established amongst a people more free and refined,” because 
amongst us, “the invention is exhausted in discovering other objects, 
(than land,) and modes of taxation, (than the direct,) which shall raise 
a revenue in a manner imperceptible to those who actually pay it, 
and where it is rather the policy to conceal than to lighten the 
burden.” Afterwards they admit that, “ To the neglect of these 
ancient institutions may, perhaps, partly be ascribed most of the 
evils and abuses that have crept into the revenue.” 


8() FINANCES OF TURKEY. 

telligible. The immense finance bureau at Constan¬ 
tinople, where, in twenty-five sections and eleven 
sub-sections, from seven to nine hundred clerks and 
officers are in constant occupation, might impress one 
with an idea, that a whole life-time would not suffice 
to obtain a general knowledge of the economy of such 
an institution, or of the workings of such a system, 
yet in practice nothing can be more simple. 

Since the reign of Mahommed the Second, the col¬ 
lection of the revenue has been by farm, (iltizam,) 
which are put up to auction and sold to the highest 
bidder. The system has undergone multifarious modi¬ 
fications and changes, the farms have been increased, 
diminished, and subdivided, new branches of revenue 
have been introduced, and old ones newly appro¬ 
priated ; and all those modifications have applied to 
the subdivisions of the revenne, both generally and 
territorially. In some districts, certain of the iltizam 
are farmed, as a matter of course, yearly by the 
pasha—in others there are farmers for life ; in some 
districts, there are distinct farmers for the different 
branches, in others the whole taxes are at once com¬ 
pounded for ; but all these distinctions vanish in prac¬ 
tice, which resolves itself, as I have already said, into 
a sum of so much, demanded from each district or 
village, which the peasants are allowed to collect as 
they please: the mode may therefore vary in each 
village, but the object in all, is to adjust taxation to 
property. 

Taxation may be reduced to these five heads. 

1st. Poll-tax, divided into three classes, ala, evsat, 
edna, under Soleyman the Second, (or First, accord¬ 
ing to the Turkish historians) and fixed at ten, six and 


FINANCES OF TURKEY. 


87 


three leonines, or piasters, on adult males not profess¬ 
ing the Mahomedan religion. The number of papers 
yearly issued is 1,600,000; but many districts com¬ 
pound for a certain number, and then the amount is 
added to the general property assessment. 

2nd. Land-tax, one tenth of the produce, or by as¬ 
sessment ; the tenth is either paid to government or 
affected to military fiefs ; a portion of these applied to 
the support of the governors, the remainder to the 
body of spahis; 450,000 men are thus calculated to 
be supported. The tributary lands are fanned at 
from one third to one half of the net produce. 

3rd. Nouzouli and avarisi, assessed taxes in towns 
where the population is not agricultural. 

4th. Customs, three per cent, on foreign com¬ 
merce, export and import; internal transport duties at 
gates of towns and bridges. 

5th. Excise upon gunpowder, snuff, wine, and 
duties on various articles of late introduction, chiefly 
established to meet the expenses of the new organi¬ 
zation under Selim the Third. I omit those branches 
of revenue which are not of universal application. 

The local and municipal expenses, independent of 
arbitrary exactions, amount, at the very lowest, to 
three times the sum received by the government; and 
I have no doubt the people would be benefited if the 
government were to quadruple its demands, allowing 
the municipal authorities the entire management of 
the finances. 

But the Turkish government has deviated from the 
Arab type which Mahomet adopted, and which, as 
the fundamental principle of the financial system of 
Islamism, deserves particular notice, no less than 


FINANCES OF TURKEY. 


83 

for its beautiful simplicity and comprehensiveness. 
Among the Arabs this system was so deeply im¬ 
planted, that the Wahab chief revived it, and it had 
remained in operation in Algiers from its first settle¬ 
ment to its capture by the French. # 

On lands watered by the heavens, one tenth. 

On lands watered by irrigation, one tenth to one 
fifth.+ 

On lands watered from wells, one fortieth. 

On the capital of merchants, one fortieth. 

* The history of the first settlement of Algiers is curious. The 
expelled Moors from Spain, possessed by the desire alone of wreak¬ 
ing vengeance on their inhuman persecutors, scattered themselves 
along the Barbary coasts, and formed little detached piratical esta¬ 
blishments. One body larger than the rest was directing its course 
to the eastward, when they were met by a naval commander of the 
Saracens, named Suleyman, who persuaded them to settle at Algiers, 
which would give them a country inland, and the means also of 
gratifying their hatred against the Spaniards. This man became 
their chief, and a deed was drawn up, bearing his signet and that 
of the chiefs of the Moors, termed agde imaun, or act of faith, 
which stipulated the pay of the dey and his troops. This amount of 
taxation is precisely that in the text, with the addition of a tax on 
sheep and camels; and that this public treasury, the beit ul maid, 
should be under the entire control of the municipal body. The 
dey’s treasury was independent of it, and received the produce of 
piracy; but the beit ul mahl was a legitimate mercantile bank, and 
at the same time a chancery treasury. The enormous sums found in 
it by the French, show how faithfully it must have been guarded. 
The act of the French which excited the greatest discontent, was a 
tax on wool, in direct violation of the agde imaun. “ Why,” said the 
Algerines, “ not double the tax on sheep, and not tax the same 
article twice?” But such reasoning seemed folly to Europeans! and 
to quell the commotion several men were shot, pour civiliser les 
mitres. I have been assured, by natives, that the agde imaun was 
among the documents transported to Paris. 

h The fertility of irrigated lands is much greater than that of the 


FINANCES OF TURKEY. 


89 


But Mahomet forbade any property tax to be ex¬ 
acted from those who did not possess two hundred 
dinars. 

But it is in the mode of raising the revenue that the 
Turkish government has chiefly departed from the prac¬ 
tice of Arabia. It is assessed and collected at present 
by humble and oppressed municipalities, created by 
local necessities, that have neither honour before the 
government nor existence in the eye of the law—and 
however beneficial in their silent and modest ope¬ 
ration—however universally spread over the face of 
European Turkey, without combined action, and af¬ 
fording each other no mutual assistance or support. 
The municipalities of Arabia were of a very different 
character. The ayans (eyes) were formerly a council 
of municipal officers, whose principal function as such 
must have been the collecting of the revenue. The 
alteration of the financial system rendered the institu¬ 
tion void by the introduction of farmers of revenue, 
who, being independent of the powerful Turkish mu¬ 
nicipality, made use of the subdivided Greek munici¬ 
pality as a useful instrument, from which they had no¬ 
thing to apprehend. Still a shadow does remain of the 

lands watered by rain, the cultivation less expensive, and the pro¬ 
duce generally more valuable. These lands are most commonly 
assessed, sometimes as high as one fifth of the produce. Omer, 
when he^settled the contribution of the sovad, or irrigable and rich 
plains along the Euphrates and surrounding Cufa and the future site 
of Bagdad, introduced the plan of assessment in money, which seems 
to have been fixed with great justice and precision. The sovad con¬ 
tained 36,000,000 djeribs, (which, by the bye, Mr. Silvestre de Sacy 
renders “ arpens,”) vineyard ground paid ten dirhems, date eight, 
sugar-cane six, wheat four, barley two. The two last were pro¬ 
bably inferior soils, or land not irrigable. 


90 


FINANCES OF TURKEY. 


ancient body, in the divan attached to, though seldom 
consulted by, each local governor. This council," 
says d’Ohsson, “ is chosen by the district and con¬ 
firmed by the Porte. They are termed ayans, and 
may be esteemed municipal officers. Jn most places 
this municipal has become an hereditary office; but 
when those notables have consideration in the country, 
they can control the pashas, and oppose their acts of 
oppression.” * 

As all prudent reform in Turkey must reduce itself 
to a restoration of the ancient rule originally derived 
from, and lately revived in all its ancient purity in, 
Arabia itself, it may not be uninteresting to point out 
the financial organization of the Wahab reformer; 
which is an example to the sultan, and which is 
exactly the plan which he has shown an inclination to 
adopt, and which perhaps ere now would have been 
adopted, had time been allowed him. 

In each district an assessment was made by the 
municipal chiefs. The government collector made 
his rounds once a year; he was accompanied by two 
delegates of the province—one to draw up the assess¬ 
ment, the other to collect the money, when the collec¬ 
tion of the district was completed. The government. 
share—I believe the half—was paid to the collector on 
acquittance, and the remainder was paid to the clerk 
of the beit ul mahl, for municipal expenditure. The 
tribute could not be exacted before the first spring 
month, when the camels and sheep have produced 
their young; and it was not to be delayed beyond 
that period. 

The beit ul mahl is a most interesting institution. 

* Vol. vii. p. 286. 


FINANCES OF TURKEY. 


91 


Every city, or even burgh of consideration, has one; 
it is a bank, in which is placed the money raised for 
provincial and municipal purposes ; here also private 
property is deposited—money, or security for pro- 
perty, subject to legislation, and portions of widows 
and orphans; the whole under the control of the 
municipal council. The objects of expenditure are 
the construction and repairing of roads, fountains, 
bridges, the relief of the indigent, and food for poor 
travellers; and private money is sometimes lent to 
merchants on proper security. The municipal council 
thus hold the strings of the public purse and of 
public credit, and resemble little houses of the com¬ 
mons ; but they have only to vote supplies, the ways 
and means giving the government no trouble. They 
have no direct control over the total of the revenue, 
but they control its collection, and have the local ex¬ 
penditure completely in their hands. 

In the Turkish provinces these higher municipal 
councils still exist in form, being stripped of both 
these functions. The beit ul mahl exists only in 
name; it has become a chancery bank, having lost its 
municipal character. 

In the collection of the revenue, the Hidayeth, or 
law digests, prescribe, in case of non-payment, neither 
imprisonment, nor distraint of lands or tenements. 
They admit of seizure of goods alone; and even every 
kind of goods were not liable to be seized—imple¬ 
ments of husbandry, for instance. Suleyman excepted 
also bee-hives, in imitation of Justinian. This is a 
striking resemblance with the practice of Rome, and a 
necessary consequence of the system common to both 
empires, of raising revenue by direct taxes, and through 


92 


FINANCES OF TURKEY. 


the agency of municipal bodies. The practice of Rome 
is so illustrative of that of the Arabs, that I cannot re¬ 
frain from comparing them. The Roman revenue was 
raised by a poll-tax, (in capita,) a property tax, (ex 
censu,) a tithe on land, and a duty on the transport 
of goods (portorium). Turks and Romans only in¬ 
terfered with commerce, with the view of lowering 
the price of corn. The impost on transport amongst 
the Mussulmans was levied ostensibly for the repair 
of roads, bridges, and harbours; and though Livy, 
our only guide in the financial history of Rome, is 
provokingly concise, yet I think we may confidently 
infer # that there also the vectigalia were applied to 
municipal purposes, the principal of which were the 
repair of roads, bridges, &c. 

General assessments were made at intervals, the 
sum of each district was fixed by these, and the col¬ 
lection and distribution then left to municipal officers. 
The necessity of harsh proceedings against defaulters 
was thus prevented, because each “ bears his burden 
according to his proportion of the sum assessed on the 
place of his abode, and of his property, to the goods 
of the other families, so that the strong may help out 


* For instance, “ Censoribus deinde postulantibus ut pecuniae 
sumraa, sibi, qua in opera publica uterentur adtribueretur; vec- 
tigal annuum decretum est.— Livy , xl. 46. 

The censors were fear’ the municipal magistrates of 

Home. They examined into private property, inquired into its 
employment, fixed the assessment, contracted for and superintended 
the paving of streets, the construction of roads and bridges, &c. 
The senate votes the vectigalia for their expenditure, which expen- 
dtiure is strictly municipal; public expenses were defrayed from the 
public treasury ; the vectigalia, therefore, did not enter the public 
treasury. 


FINANCES OF TURKEY. 


93 


the weak.”* Therefore the Roman, as the Mussulman, 
law admits of no imprisonment for non-payment, “for 
the taxes regard men only for their goods, and they 
are of themselves a burden sufficient without this hard¬ 
ship, which, through this indiscretion of the persons 
who might have this power in their hands, might be 
a means to fill all the prisons in the kingdom.” For 
the like reason the Roman law for the non-payment of 
personal or real tax, admits distraint of goods or fruits, 
but not of tenements or land. Nay more, collectors 
are “ not to seize or distrain things necessary for 
food or raiment, for the culture of the land, or the 
exercise of trade or profession.”-|- 

Under such humane laws, and, above all, with this 
popular control over the collection, it was natural 
that direct taxes should be as much preferred as they 
have been detested amongst us ; and even where the 
advantages of this mode of collection do not exist, 
whenever the people come materially to perceive the 
difference between the real pressure of direct and 
indirect taxes, the former are preferred. The aver¬ 
sion in France for the droits-rewnis is notorious, and 


* Domat. Public Law. Pub. Reo. tit. v. sect. 3. 

f Id. id. sec. viii. 

“ Servos aratores, boves aratores aut instrumentum aratorium 
pignoris causa de possessionibus non abstrahant. 

L. 7. C. qua res. pig., fyc. 

A French ordonnance, following the spirit of the Roman law, 
provides, “ That there shall be left to the person on whom distress 
is made, one cow, three ewes, or two she-goats, to help to maintain 
them ; a bed to lie on, and a suit of clothes to wear. 

Ord. of 1687, tit. xxxiii. sect. 14. 


94 


FINANCES OF TURKEY. 


not long ago, as a boon to the bourgeoise of Vienna, 
one half of the tax on articles of consumption was 
remitted, and replaced by an assessed tax on houses. 
In Turkey the feeling of hostility to indirect taxes is 
uncompromising and universal, not in consequence, 
certainly, of greater political intelligence than is to be 
found among the people of Europe, but because their 
system is relieved from embarrassing complication, 
and effects follow close their causes. Amongst the 
Romans the same feeling may be inferred from their 
practice ; but of its existence, positive as well as 
negative proofs exist. A tax on articles of consump¬ 
tion introduced into the city, formed, with a poll-tax, 
the earliest resources of the Roman state. After the 
expulsion of the Tarquins, when the senate, in the 
war with Porsenna, doubted the fidelity of the people, 
this tax, the portorium, was remitted, as a gratification 
to the plebs, yet, as a tax on articles of consumption, 
all classes were equally subject to it. Subsequently 
in the war with the Veii, when it was found necessary 
to pay the troops, and consequently to increase the 
expenditure, this tax was not reimposed, because 
the loyalty of the people was still doubtful, but a 
property tax was established, and cheerfully sub¬ 
mitted to. 

Judging by the recent experience of Europe, it 
seems most strange and inexplicable how powerful 
governments, during so many centuries, should have 
kept clear of the perplexities and embarrassments on 
financial questions, into which the governments of 
modern Europe have so lamentably fallen. From 
these errors they have been preserved by the follow- 


FINANCES OF TURKEY. 


95 


lowing considerations, which are important in their ap¬ 
plication to the present state and prospects of Turkey. 

A government raising its revenue by a direct pro¬ 
perty tax, has no motive or pretext, for the favouring 
of any class of producers, to introduce privileges or 
monopolies. 

It has no motive or pretext, for the favouring of 
any class of consumers, to distribute unequally the 
burdens of the state. 

It has no motive or pretext, for the protection of its 
revenue, or for facilitating the collection, to introduce 
restrictions or prohibitions, or generally to legislate 
in financial matters, so as to interfere with commerce. 

No interests have grown up under such restrictions 
and protections, to perplex government with new de¬ 
mands, to overawe it by powerful combinations, or 
to corrupt it by occult influences. 

Taxation falling on the amount of property, the 
government has a direct and sensible interest in the 
general prosperity; and there is no organized body 
of collectors to whisper in its ear new modes of 
taxation, or measures of increased severity. 

The general effects of the system on the nation 
are, that taxation takes from the people only the sum 
that government receives, consequently that it does 
not indirectly augment prices. That it fall on wealth 
realized, not on the means of production. That, con¬ 
sequently, it falls equally on all, and gives a constant 
interest to the rich and powerful to control expendi¬ 
ture. But there are two remote effects of the system 
that particularly struck me in Turkey; the first, that 
taxation, by not anticipating profit, left every field of 


96 


FINANCES OF TURKEY. 


industry open—employed no capital uselessly in mere 
transfers, required no fictitious credit, prevented 
fluctuations, ensured regular supplies, diminished the 
chances of loss, excluded gambling profits, and ren¬ 
dered commerce a simple and unmistified transfer or 
transport of goods. The second, that by falling on 
property realized, and not on the necessities of the 
producer, and by not increasing the price of articles 
of consumption which the poorest must purchase 
while he labours,—labour itself is raised, and the 
means of accumulation spread through the whole 
mass of the community. The consequence of which 
is, that there is no pauperism in Turkey. This is so 
remarkable a fact, that I must offer some observations 
upon it. 

Nothing can better illustrate the effect of our sys¬ 
tem, or consequently show more clearly the relief the 
Turkish system affords to those classes who amongst 
us would become paupers, than the poor-laws them¬ 
selves. They are instituted with the view of com¬ 
pensating for the unequal pressure of taxation, and 
for the increase of price of the necessaries of life, 
created by interference with commerce ; but of the sum 
raised for this purpose, two thirds are absorbed by the 
very system they are intended to counteract; for the 
corn, tea, sugar, &c. on which they are expended, 
could be procured for one third their cost if the world 
were our market, so that taxes raised to counteract 
taxation are again taxed 66 per cent. One third of 
the mere operative's labour purchases his articles of 
consumption, and the two thirds are absorbed by the in¬ 
direct effects of customs and excise, though the govern- 


FINANCES OF TURKEY. 


97 


merit receives but a very trifling portion of that 
amount. 

Under such circumstances accumulation is hope¬ 
less ; the working classes, living from hand to mouth, 
become desperate when wages sink, and improvident 
when they rise. Labour is rendered dependent; they 
have no provision to enable them to work on their 
own account, or to associate; old age and sickness 
are unprovided against ; the chances of seasons 
and warfare in the remotest part of the globe, or, 
more fatal still, the fluctuations to which our system 
renders us unceasingly subject, may throw them at an 
hour’s notice out of work, and by the same reason 
out of bread. 

Compared with indirect, direct taxation operates 
as a loan advanced to each individual, for the prose¬ 
cution of his industry and enterprise. The advance 
of a very trifling sum often enables a man to realize 
talents, industry, opportunities, and even capital, 
which otherwise would have lain dormant:—a small 
sum, opportunely furnished, may enable the borrower 
to discharge a large debt. Now, if government w ere 
itself, on the principle of the Scotch banks, to which 
Scotland owes so much of its characteristic industry, 
to advance sums to any district, graduated to the 
humblest wants of the industrious ; and were it able 
to exert a moral influence over the persons benefiting 
by these advances, such as the Scotch banks exercise, 
or such as the municipal system exercises, why should 
not that district make as rapid strides as Ambelakia, 
or the commercial communities and republics of the 
middle ages ? A new class of men, workmen pos- 

H 


98 


FINANCES OF TURKEY. 


sessed of more or less capital would arise ; the 
moral sanction and controul on which the advances 
would be made, would necessarily raise their charac¬ 
ter, or exclude them from the benefits of the com¬ 
munity; and the government, which by advancing 
those sums to correct the proscription of independent 
industry by indirect taxation, and to counteract the 
tendency of that system to lower the moral character 
while it curtails the profits of the industrious, would 
increase national wealth, give additional employment 
for labour, would augment the indirect revenue, and 
while it received its own capital, would at the same 
time, in the interest, make the profit of the bank. 
But if these loans amount only to the sums necessary 
to meet the demands made by government antecedent 
to production, and even to purchase, # then is it not 
clear that the reserving of these demands until the 
profit has been realized is tantamount to the advance 
of this fructifying sum? 

The weight of taxation, when direct, if not carried 
too far, has a tendency to spur rather than to curb 
exertion. The least increase of the pressure of in¬ 
direct taxation may throw thousands of those who 
live from hand to mouth out of work or out of bread. 
Direct taxation diminishes capital, but indirect taxa¬ 
tion diminishes labour. The hardest conditions of 
the one system are activity and parsimony, while the 
necessities of the other are want of employment and 
of bread. Therefore are no idlers to be found in the 
fields of Turkey; therefore is the condition of pauper- 

* The duty on every article is paid months, and even years, pre¬ 
vious to consumption. 


FINANCES OP TURKEY. 


99 


ism unknown; that is to say, no class of men exists 
who must starve or be supported by charity, because 
they cannot find work. 

Compare this condition with that of any country 
afflicted with the indirect system ; but recollect, in the 
comparison, that every institution, every application 
of the power of mechanism, every discovery in 
science, all the intellectual and moral nationality, 
which place such countries as France or England on 
the high position among nations which they occupy, 
have no existence in Turkey; no solicitude is there 
manifested for the welfare of the poor, no benevolent 
societies, no allotments of land, no poor laws provide 
for the indigent, no equal representations of interests 
in a central legislation watches over them; no press 
is there to spread light, to expose wrongs, to com¬ 
municate improvements; no tribunals, no jury, no 
law;—but withal no pauperism. To appreciate at 
its just value the advantages of the Turkish system, 
we must, as a term of comparison, find some nation 
whose central administration is as despicable as that 
of Turkey, and which follows at the same time the 
European administrative centralization and financial 
system. I will not trust to my own recollections to 
draw the parallel between Turkey and Spain, but I 
will quote from Mr. Inglis a description of a Cas¬ 
tilian village, and then ask the traveller in the most 
wretched portion of Turkey, to match from that country 
one hundredth part of its misery. 

“ I saw between two and three hundred persons, 
and amongst these there was not one whose rags half 
covered his nakedness. Men and women were like 
bundles of ill-assorted shreds and patches, of about 

h 2 


100 


FINANCES OF TURKEY. 


a hundred hues and sizes; and, as for the children, 
I saw some entirely naked, and many that might as 
well have been without their tattered coverings. I 
threw a few biscuits amongst the children, and the 
eagerness with which they fought for and devoured 
them, reminded me rather of young wolves than of 
human beings. The badness of the pavement and 
the steepness of the street made it necessary for the 
diligence to go slowly, and 1 profited by the delay to 
look into one or two of the miserable abodes of these 
wretched beings. I found a perfect union between 
the dweller and his dwelling. I could not see one 
article of furniture—no table, no chair; a few large 
stones supplied the place of the latter; for the former 
there was no occasion, and something resembling a 
mattress was the bed of the family. Leaving this 
village, I noticed two stone pillars and a wooden 
pale across, indicating that the proprietor possesses 
the power of life and death within his own domain.”* 
I can affirm that I have been for months travelling 
in the interior of Iloumelie, during which I have no 
recollection of having been pursued for charity. I 
have often put up at the houses of the poorer rayas, 
and been contented with their fare, i have daily 
entered several of their huts. I have been unceas¬ 
ingly inquiring into their condition, and therefore 
have been brought into contact with the poorest and 
most ignorant, yet I never have entered a hut without 
a carpet and a cushion being spread for my accom¬ 
modation ; not a single instance remains on my recol¬ 
lection of nakedness being exposed from want of 
covering; and the humblest peasant would discourse 
* Vol. i. p. 56. 


FINANCES OF TURKEY. 


101 


sensibly on subjects with which experience had made 
him acquainted^ and often on subjects which ap¬ 
peared far beyond his sphere, with the address and 
manner which in Europe is only to be found among 
gentlemen! 

Attempt to trace to their sources the misery and 
degradation of the people of Spain—you will always 
find them in laws and privileges. Is it too much to 
assume, that the comparative ease and intelligence, 
and the unparalleled industry and frugality of the 
poorest classes in Turkey—in a word, that the absence 
of pauperism is owing to the absence of # legislative 
interference with the prices of commodities or the 
exchange of industry. The profits of the Turkish 
peasant are all his own, if he can evade the robbery 
of the government agent. If he stood alone when he 
saw the fruits of his labours wrested from him, his 
hands might fall by his side, his energies might fail; 
but he is supported by the fellowship of his com¬ 
munity, as well as by his constantly renewed prospects 
of gain. Thus the raya population labours and hopes, 
even when it does not realize. With efforts unceas¬ 
ing as those of Tantalus, it rolls its burden towards 
the still rising summit. Though accumulation is 
seldom to be seen, production goes on unceasingly.-J- 

* It will of course be understood that Ido not mean civil or penal 
codes. 

f The very apprehension of representing the rayas in too favour¬ 
able a light, has perhaps led me to depress the whole body to the 
level of those to the south, who have been exposed for now twelve 
years to unceasing devastation. The Sclavonic populations to the 
north can scarcely be said to have suffered from war, consequently 
their condition is far superior to that of their Greek co-religionists. 
I am glad to be able to add to my own testimony that of Mr. Slade : 


102 


FINANCES OF TURKEY. 


Is it the wrongs the Spanish peasant endures, is it 
the fertility of his soil, the mildness of his climate, 
the fewness of his wants, that renders him callous 
and degraded, and limits his aspirations to winter, 
sunshine, and summer shade ? Has the Turkish 
peasant fewer wrongs to bear, a . less fertile soil, or 
indulgent climate? Whence, then, the signal dif¬ 
ference between them, save in the fundamental dif¬ 
ferences of system, which I have been endeavouring 
to point out ? 

If, then, Turkey exists at this moment, if she con¬ 
tains in her breast the elements of re-organization, if 
the states that spring from her possess legislative 
tactic and administrative experience and instructi >n, 
if her commerce is free, and her government without 
debt—it is only in consequence of her direct taxation, 
which has called forth the municipal organization, 
and has precluded the necessity of custom-house 
exactions. 

Hitherto they (Bulgarians) had lived tranquil, and never till 1829 
formed one of the jarring elements of the Ottoman empire. Hence 
their superior condition, visible in their flourishing towns and abun¬ 
dant fields; witnesss Temovo, &c., all thickly peopled, wealthy, 
and possessing manufactories, &c. I could not hear in any place of 
a Bulgarian having been executed; the circumstance was time out 
of mind. 

“ No peasantry in the whole world are so well off*; the lowest 
Bulgarian has abundance of every thing; meat, poultry, eggs, milk, 
rice, cheese, wine, bread, good clothing, a warm dwelling, and a 
horse to ride. I wish that in every country a traveller could pass 
from one end to the other, and find a good supper and a warm fire 
in every cottage, as he can in European Turkey.”—Vol. ii. p. 97. 


103 


CHAPTER V. 


PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 

How have the pashas maintained their authority 
over the provinces ? How has the Porte maintained 
its authority over the pashas ? These are the ques¬ 
tions which I shall endeavour to answer. 

The first is soon disposed of, The Janissaries, or 
local military oligarchy, were balanced by the Alba¬ 
nians, or Magreybeens, or other martial tribes ; the 
disunion and rivalry and opposed interests of these 
tribes, secured the supremacy of the pashas, while they 
all united as Mussulmans to subject the Christians to 
their rule, and, as the arm-bearing caste, to oppress 
the Fellah. 

On the conflicting interests of these tribes not only 
depended the authority of the pashas, but even of the 
Porte itself. The Albanians have ever been the 
right arm of the executive, and the enemies of the 
Janissaries: twice have armies of Janissaries been 
pushed in vain against Scadra, the northern Albanian 
capital. Albanians extirpated the Mamelukes, the 


J 04 


PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 


Janissaries of Egypt; and the memorable revolu¬ 
tion, which placed the present sultan, in spite of the 
Janissaries, on the throne, the Albanians left their 
mountains to effect, and planted their barracks on the 
heights of Daoud Pasha, in the astonished eyes of 
Constantinople. 

The Albanian is the very opposite of the Janissary 
in all things, save the common lawlessness of the 
retainers of a pasha ; his home is at a distance from the 
metropolis, he was called from it to enter the service 
of the Porte, and he depended on that service ; duly 
paid, he is devoted to those whose bread he eats ; he 
is not fanatic, he is brave. The Arnaut alone has 
vindicated the honour of Turkey, on the Bog, the 
Pruth, and the Danube, and though the authority of 
the Porte has at no period been established through¬ 
out Albania, until the close of 1831, yet these mountain 
nurseries of iron men were not able to support their 
matured vigour, and the champions of Turkey were 
controlled in their native fastnesses by the surround¬ 
ing bands of Christian Armatotes, whom it has always 
been the policy of the Porte to foster until the tughia 
were extorted by an Albanian, old Ali of Tebelene, 
when, unhappily but inevitably, the former policy 
was entirely subverted. 

The destruction of the Janissaries renders it no 
longer necessary to flatter the passions of the Alba¬ 
nians, who are now compelled to submit to that disci¬ 
pline and subordination which are become the condi¬ 
tions of military service; they have been bred to arms 
and to danger, they have been hardened by privations 
and humbled by reverses; arms is their only career. 


PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 


105 


and the sultan's pay the only means of subsistence 
that is left them. Here then the most important 
change is effected in the administration ; the pasha, 
even supposing him inclined, as much as formerly, to 
pillage, and as certain of impunity, is no longer under 
the necessity of sanctioning the pillage, and fomenting 
the intrigues of his subordinates, to maintain his au¬ 
thority both over the province and over them. 

I now come to the second question, how the Porte 
ensures the subordination of the pashas ? Turkey, 
though an empire, is not a nation; the regions sub¬ 
mitted to its sway are peopled by tribes and nations, 
differing in race, religion, language, and even colour. 
It is not easily to be understood how viceroys of pro¬ 
vinces, or rather kingdoms, exercising absolute autho¬ 
rity, maintaining large military establishments, while 
the government has not even what would be called a 
standing army, should tamely submit to be deposed 
or reappointed year by year, and that revolt should 
have been a rare occurrence. Now the difficulty of 
accounting for the submission of the pashas, on which 
has immediately rested, on the one hand, the perma¬ 
nency of the empire, and on the other, the misery of 
the raya, is not diminished by the consideration which 
meets us, in limine , that the agents of government 
were subject to oppression, in their turn, and to a 
precariousness of tenure of life and property, which 
no other Mussulman, indeed no other subjects of the 
Porte, felt in any comparable degree. The pashas 
were elevated by no regular system ; they were not an 
organized body, supporting each other; their services 
secured them no reversionary rewards or honours: 


106 


PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 


their downfall might be, and generally was, more 
rapid than their rise. The chamal, or porter, to-day, 
might be pasha to-morrow, and the next eve might 
see him restored to his former avocations. So far, 
indeed, from the service being an honour or an advan¬ 
tage, that hitherto respectable men shunned it, for 
the sake of their character no less than of their peace 
and security; and for the wealthy to be exempted 
from the necessity of accepting service, has been a 
rare and valued privilege. How then has obedience 
been enforced among a body of men entrusted with 
such unlimited powers, and so independent of all re¬ 
straint of force, of interest, or opinion ? It is not one 
cause alone which has produced or can account for so 
anomalous a state of society ; but I think to one in par¬ 
ticular rather than to any other, both by its immediate 
and remote influence, this state of things is to be at¬ 
tributed, and this lies in the financial system. 

Until the reign of Mahommed II, as already 
stated, the administration of the finances was wholly 
independent of the civil governors, and until the reign 
of Murad III, the military fiefs, where they were not 
held by spahis, were principally in the possession of 
Sandgac beys, who governed Livas, or small provinces, 
and were appointed for life. The two branches of the 
financial system were altered by the above-named 
sultans—the first converted the different branches 
of revenue into farms, the latter introduced or gene¬ 
ralized the system of pashas yearly appointed. In pro¬ 
cess of corruption and disorganization, the pashas 
came nominally in many cases, and really in all, to 
possess at once the farm of the tribute, of the poll-tax. 


PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 


107 


or customs, or national domains, or all these together, 
with the civil and military command of the province, 
and, as may be supposed, took the administration of 
justice out of the hands of the cadi. The precarious¬ 
ness of the office of pasha prevented men of property 
from aspiring to it while the Porte required security 
for the tribute due by him who farmed the revenue ; 
the pasha had therefore to give security before he 
could be installed, but generally being without the 
requisite personal property, or personal credit, and 
his office itself, on which the whole chance of repay¬ 
ment lay, being of the most precarious nature, it was 
necessary for him to bind himself in the most solemn 
manner, and to grant the most advantageous condi¬ 
tions to the capitalist who would engage to answer for 
him. Here we come to the secret and carefully con¬ 
cealed spring which puts in motion the whole ma¬ 
chinery of the Turkish administration. 

The Armenians have been and still are the richest 
and most commercial people of the empire : by their 
wealth they are the surest guarantees the Porte could 
obtain: by their knowledge of the Turkish, by their 
intimate acquaintance with all commercial dealings, 
and by their condition of ray a, they offer to the 
pashas every quality that can recommend them as 
active and able men of business, as bankers of soli¬ 
dity, and as docile creditors. The revenues being 
often collected in kind, their capacity of merchant, 
united to that of bankers, makes them doubly useful, 
and gives them opportunities of rapidly acquiring 
wealth. The sultan views their prosperity with no 
unfriendly eye, as their wealth, like that of the pashas, 
is not squandered by extravagant habits, or expended 


108 


PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 


in rebellious enterprises, but remains carefully hoarded 
in their strong-boxes till some pretence, or some ne¬ 
cessity, brings it into the miri. 

Considerable capital being required for carrying- 
on this branch of business, the number of the sarafs 
is, I believe, under eighty, nearly the number of the 
pashas ; and as, by their refusal to become guarantee, 
they can reduce any Turkish governor to the con¬ 
dition of a private individual, they, in fact, farm out 
the provinces at their pleasure and for their profit; 
they have even of late carried their authority so far, 
that no banker will consent to become the saraf of a 
pasha—raised, as I may say, to that rank by one of 
their body, without a note of hand from his former 
banker, declaring that all his demands have been 
satisfied. 

Supposing the sum to be received by the govern¬ 
ment is 500,000 piastres, it is to be paid in four 
instalments ; but the banker receives a note of hand 
from the pasha for the whole sum, together with the 
douceurs of office immediately on his being named, 
which begins to bear interest from that day, of, at 
the very lowest, two per cent, per month. The 
pasha has then to be furnished with arms, shawls, 
pipes, horses, See. from the merchants : the banker has 
ten per cent, commission upon those articles. The 
money to be paid at two, four, and six months ; but he 
receives an immediate receipt for the sum in full, bear¬ 
ing interest as the other. Shortly after the pasha ar¬ 
rives in his province, there is a present to the banker, 
of from a tenth to one-fifth of the value of the revenue, 
as his profits on the operation, and a present to his 
clerk, of the divers produce of the province. But if 


PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 


109 


the banker understands from bis clerk that tbe pasha 
is amassing money, he sends him unexpectedly an 
intimation to this effect: “ There have unfortunately 
been complaints made against your highness, but by 
my interests I have silenced them. There is a sacri¬ 
fice of 10,000 piastres, which you will pass to my 
account.” This sacrfice may be real, but it may also 
be fictitious. It might be supposed, that when any 
of these pashas become sadrazem, they would avenge 
the robberies they had suffered; but, no; the Arme¬ 
nians have, from their wealth, connexion, and party 
feeling, sufficient influence, even to contribute to 
the nomination of the grand vizir himself; and the 
Turks in office look upon their extortion as necessary 
evils, which are the making of their own fortunes. The 
vizir, too, has another interest in sparing his banker, 
for he obtains the remission of his own debts in con¬ 
sideration of his support, in compensating extortions 
from the other pashas. The utmost extent of their 
fortunes may be a million sterling: it is rapidly made 
from the moment they acquire respectability enough 
to becme surety for the pasha; but it does not go 
on augmenting without checks from time to time.* 
The confidential agent, who accompanies the 

* They run no risk now of having their heads cut oft'; but their 
property is by no means sure. When a cabal, or want of money, or 
more than ordinary rapacity, occasions a banker to be singled out as 
the victim, he is seized in his country-house, and hurried over to 
the Asia side, under sentence of banishment. There he is allowed to 
remain several days; his friends and dependents busy themselves 
in providing what maybe necessary for him, and, strange to say, 
his papers remain, as his strong box, untouched; negociations then 
commence, and he agrees tacitly with the government as to the sums 
his coders are to contain when seized; if the sacrifice is deemed 


110 PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 

pasha to his province, is generally a relative of 
the saraf; all money transactions pass through his 
hands; and the agiotage and commission are very 
considerable. This agent receives the revenue of 
the province, for which his principal has become 
responsible, and traffics in its produce, which he 
manages to obtain at a reduced price, as tribute by 
exaction, &c. Tims, to every pasha a steward is 
attached, like a sucking fish to a shark, from whom, 
let him writhe as he likes, he cannot get rid—who 
watches his movements, commands his resources, and 
urging him ever to acts of violence and extortion, 
leaves him only a portion of the plunder. The pasha 
cannot throw him off, because his office depends on 
the guaranteeship, and he cannot possibly induce him 
to plot against the Porte, because the bulk of the 
Armenian’s fortune, and the principal of the firm are 
at Constantinople, where also his family is retained as 
hostages, and whence on no pretence they are suffered 
to depart. 

The principal evil of this system is this—the sarafs 
naturally wish to conceal from the pashas the amount 
of their profits, which they most effectually do, by 
obtaining the order for collecting the revenue before 
harvest time. By anticipating the time of payment 
the bankers receive two and half per cent, interest 
per month on the money, which the peasant is obliged 
to borrow ; depress the market after harvest by the 
necessity in which the peasant is placed of realizing, 
as the condition of the loan ; bargain with the villages 


sufficient and loyal, he returns to Constantinople, and goes on as if 
nothing had happened. 


PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 


Ill 


for the exclusion of all other competitors for their 
produce, and even for a reduction of the price below 
that of the thus depressed market. On a small scale, 
the effects of our indirect system are realized, the 
imitation originating in similar causes—the pretence 
of taxation for the benefit of monopolists, and the 
imposition of ruinous burdens for the sake of dis¬ 
guising a small profit. 

It is then by means of this body of bankers, jobbers, 
and speculators, that Turkey secures the exact pay¬ 
ment of her revenue, and surrounds her governors 
with a financial thraldom and espionage, through 
which the boldest arms have never succeeded in 
breaking; while at the same time the pashas are 
driven to such excesses of extortion, that enmity is 
placed between the province and its governor; and 
let him amass treasure, levy troops, and put on the 
show of power and strength, he has no hold on his 
office, because the very means he has necessarily 
taken to maintain his authority have made him the 
object of hatred. 

Here we have three bodies particularly interested 
in the continuance of misrule—the adherents of the 
pashas, the pashas themselves, and the Armenian 
bankers; the first we have disposed of, the second 
are the creatures of a breath, puppets, the wires of 
which are held by the sultan, the bankers, and the 
troops; the office was dreaded, but the individual 
was nothing: no sooner will circumstances allow the 
military organization to have so far proceeded as to 
afford men to supply the place of the irregular re¬ 
tainers of the pashas, than the whole system will be 
swept away. But, it may be thought that so powerful 


J12 


PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 


and united a body as the bankers would strenuously 
oppose such a change. I can apprehend no such re¬ 
sistance : the security that would accompany the 
change would increase the value of capital, open new 
and vast fields to industry and enterprise, capital 
would be scarce for useful purposes, and be eagerly 
withdrawn from such precarious investments ; and 
even if fortunes are not to be so rapidly realized by 
purely commercial pursuits, they are not liable to 
sudden ruin, nor are their possessors exposed to po¬ 
litical intrigue and powerful vengeance. The bankers 
have no power of their own, they have no distinct 
influence; they have hitherto been necessary, as a 
link in a ponderous chain, and that bond once broken, 
they are wholly deprived of all political importance ; 
and their capital and their habits ensure them better 
rewards in the honourable and beneficial career of 
industry, than they could have reaped from the suc¬ 
cessful hazards of political gambling. 

To destroy this influence of the Armenians, which 
grinds the peasantry, puts hatred between the pasha 
and his province, degrades the character of the public 
service, and excludes from it character, honour, and 
honesty, it is only necessary to collect the revenue 
without the intervention of the pasha ; the munici¬ 
palities, without any new experiment, afford the 
ready means. To restrain the rapaciousness of the 
government agents, they must be rendered by system 
responsible; to ensure the obedience of the chief, he 
must be part of a system, and his authority over his 
subordinates must rest on that system ; but no con- 
troul or responsibility can make men honest, who have 
not the means of honourable existence in their sphere 


PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 


113 


of life, therefore they must receive regular pay; in 
one word, they must be disciplined troops. It matters 
little for the moment whether they can handle a mus¬ 
ket or not, but they must be subordinate to their su¬ 
periors, and responsible for their actions. This, then, 
is what is required of the sultan ; and strange as it 
may sound to English ears, a standing army is more 
necessary as a bulwark to the civil liberties of Turkey 
than to her national independence. 

The perversion of mind from which remotely sprung 
all the afflictions of Turkey, was pride. It required 
the most complete prostration of national haughtiness 
to enable her to emerge from her former torpor, and 
radically to cure her political disorganization. That 
gangrenous limb, the Janissaries, had first to be 
rescinded. The operation has been followed by an 
accumulation of the most alarming symptoms, indica¬ 
tive of a crisis which must either exhaust the malady 
or destroy the patient. Habits and old institutions 
and opinions were broken up ; secret intrigue was 
added to open revolt; their fleet annihilated by their 
friends, their armies scattered by their foes; the Mus¬ 
covites, in the second capital of the empire, and the 
Arnaouts in open revolt; and while the eye of the 
startled Turk turned from one object of alarm to 
another, it saw the balta of the sultan hanging by a 
hair over his head ; Osmanli pride was laid in the 
dust, and the mantle of blind confidence was rudely 
torn from their weakness, their nakedness, and their 
errors. The government is inexperienced, to apply 
to it the mildest epithet, and may be rash : the raya 
population have so much political power and import¬ 
ance as to be able to disturb the progress of their own 


] 14 PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 

political amelioration. The personal character of the 
sultan, then, is most important, at this moment, as in 
the paralyzation of all power, the man, even more 
than the sultan, remains the sole bond of the empire. 
The attachment of the ray as to him can alone secure a 
general union advantageous to their progress , neces¬ 
sary to their independence , and to the consolidation 
of a power essential to higher political combinations, 
and which, I verily believe, more calculated, by its 
fundamental principles and its national habits, to 
ensure the prosperity of the various tribes of its 
population, than any practical combination at the 
present moment arising out of its overthrow. 

When Mahmoud assumed the reins of govern¬ 
ment, the political horizon of Turkey was completely 
darkened and confused; but unexpectedly, cloud 
after cloud was dispelled, the Mamelukes were de¬ 
stroyed, the Afghans chastised, Viddin, Bagdad, sub¬ 
mitted to his authority, the Wahabs were punished, 
the pilgrimages were resumed, and the keys of the 
holy city laid at his feet. The opinion gradually 
established itself—“ Mahmoud is fortunate ”—the first 
of qualities in an eastern hero. In pursuance of his 
policy of extirpating the dere beys, he had recourse 
to various arts to circumvent them, which were sig¬ 
nally successful. The mass of the nation, which gene¬ 
rally rejoiced in the punishment of its oppressors, 
saw the destruction of the dere beys with no less 
gratification than amazement, and universally ex¬ 
claimed, “The sultan has a head.” But the most 
tragic scene of a reign spent in ceaseless executions— 
the extirpation of the Janissaries —fell like a thunder¬ 
bolt on the nation. Their sultan appeared in the 


PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 


115 


character of an avenging angel: with the most extra¬ 
ordinary good fortune seemed combined in him the 
utmost fertility of resources, sternness of purpose, 
and sanguinariness of disposition : so far his character 
was only calculated to strike terror; but when the 
ruthless executioner was seen entering the cot of the 
peasant, inquiring into his condition, asking for plans 
for its amelioration, subscribing for the erection of 
schools and churches, (or at least, reported to have 
done so,) is it to be wondered at that he became the 
object of the idolatry of the Greek and Christian po¬ 
pulation,* or that the measures which he adopted for 
thoroughly breaking the pride of the Turks, gained 
him the confidence and attachment of the rayas— 
much more important than the applause either of the 
stubborn Turk or of his European judges. 

He has effected three things, which have each been 
the principal objects of every sultan since Mahomet 
the Fourth; the destruction of the Janissaries, the 
extirpation of the dere beys, and the subjugation of 
Albania, which had not admitted the supremacy of 
the Porte, even in its days of conquest. The man, 
under whose auspices such events have taken place. 


* To this being- the fact, I can bear the most uncompromising tes¬ 
timony ; from the year 1827 to 1830,1 do not recollect ever hearing 
a Greek peasant speak of the Turks, when he could get an opportu¬ 
nity of addressing me privately, but to express his hatred, contempt, 
or horror. In 1832, 1 passed through Lower and Higher Albania, 
the district of Monastir, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Servia, &c. and sel¬ 
dom (especially towards the west and the north) have I found a Chris¬ 
tian peasant speak of the sultan or the grand vizir without saying, 
“ May God take ten years from our lives to add to his! ” but the good 
had only commenced to appear when foreign intrigue, and not less 
culpable apathy, let loose the Egyptian revolt on devoted Turkey. 

i 2 


116 


PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 


is no ordinary character, even though they have been 
brought about by the change of circumstances, rather 
than by his combinations; it is no small praise, con¬ 
sidering his bringing up, that he has changed with 
circumstances, and profited by their change. 

The monarch’s character is as yet beyond the reach 
of accurate scrutiny; but he has shown himself as 
opposite to himself as the most dissimilar individuals. 
In his first measures he appeared cunning and artful, 
then relentlessly cruel: he was politic with the Alba¬ 
nians, and benevolent to the Greeks. His actions 
individually appear the result of passion; and taken 
as a whole, they seem to indicate a mind to which the 
means are nothing, and the end all: determined, to 
stubbornness, but capricious through ignorance; not 
insensible to generous impulses and views; entirely 
free from prejudices, as to government and etiquette ; 
—and whether he perceives or not that the tendency 
of his policy is to deprive himself and his successors 
of even the shadow of arbitrary power, whether he 
views such a consummation with fear or hope—his 
efforts have been unceasingly directed to destroying 
the dangerous and precarious props of Turkish 
despotism. 

In common with most Europeans, I at one time 
believed that the sultan had entirely mistaken his 
way, if his object was the regeneration of his country. 
I thought that the destruction of the powerful chiefs, 
who individually could protect their dependents from 
lawless and promiscuous oppression, was exposing 
the people to irredeemable anarchy. This opinion was 
founded on the fact, that the peasants abandoned 
their free lands to become labourers on the chiflicks 


PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 117 

of powerful Turks ; but on better acquaintance with 
the country, and with the opinions of the people 
themselves , I perceived that this preference was of very 
recent date—that it had been occasioned by the anarchy 
of the last twelve years—which anarchy was created 
by the power and insubordination of chiefs and tribes, 
who set the authority of the government at defiance; 
these being reduced, the influence of the municipal 
organization would be again restored. 

If, indeed, the re-organization of Turkey depended 
on the skill, the intelligence, and the honesty of any 
central administration, the case would be hopeless. 
Shameless venality, unblushing ignorance, inveterate 
corruption and favouritism, are its characteristics* 
without a shadow of patriotism or a spark of honour. 
What power could be safely intrusted—what re¬ 
forming measures be confided to the puppets of 
Armenian sarafs, to the tools of seraglio favourites ? 
Public opinion too, most thoroughly rejects them, 
will no longer be ruled by them. There is not a 
man of ordinary sense who, being asked where the 
cause of the misgovern ment of Turkey is to be found, 
will not instantly answer, “ In the power of the pashas, 
and the military chiefs.” 

A great deal has been said in Europe about the 
insults the sultan has offered to the prejudices of his 
people. Without any intention of defending gene¬ 
rally his sumptuary and uniform regulations, I am far 
from thinking that they have been in all respects inju¬ 
dicious, and I certainly think that they have excited 
more attention than they deserve. 

What, after all, are the prejudices he has offended? 

I speak not of the Asiatics, but of the European 


118 


PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 


Turks, who have hitherto ruled the empire. There 
the Turkish Mussulmans are in very small numbers, 
and the others have never adopted the Mussulman 
costume. On the first introduction of the new cos¬ 
tumes and style, it was to be expected that the most 
powerful opposition would have been raised—yet the 
point has been carried. The infringement of rights 
hatches and matures in silence future resistance ; but 
if men once submit to have their prejudices insulted, 
and their habits changed, no future resistance is to 
be feared; indeed, they themselves become the ready 
instruments for inflicting the like change upon others. 
So it was with the costume of the Nizzam : a party 
was marked by a visible sign, which bound them 
together, which detached them from their antecedent 
history, which placed them in dependence on their 
chief, and barred all relapse. Another important 
effect of the costume was, that it prepared them to 
admit similarity of dress with the rayas ; and a most 
important consideration this is, though it is clear that 
such an effect was never anticipated by the sultan, or 
he never would have attempted to enforce the uniform 
on the mountain tribes, where the case is wholly dif¬ 
ferent, and where the attempt was even ridiculous. 
Amongst them their costume is national, not religious. 
Mussulman and Christian wore it alike. It was well 
to humble the pride of the Osmanli, whose haughti¬ 
ness had been the cause of the independence of both 
Greece and Servia; but it was madness to irritate 
the Arnout and the Bosniac, who, as they were used, 
could support or overturn the empire, whose nation¬ 
ality had to be excited, not repressed, and whose 
costume had never been made by themselves an 


PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 


119 


object of invidious and galling distinction from their 
fellow subjects. Thus the question of costume is 
simplified, by being subdivided; where it was judi¬ 
cious, it has been enforced, where injudicious, it has 
been successfully resisted; and such, I trust, will be 
the result of future innovations. 

Great and numerous as the losses of Turkey have 
been, they are not altogether without compensation. 
The overweening pride, confidence, and stationari- 
ness of the Turk, has been dispelled. The hopes of 
the raya in his own government have been raised, 
and aversion for the protection once eagerly sought, 
takes away the fuel from intrigue. The prostration 
of Turkey lay in the misuse of her resources; re¬ 
stricted to Roumelie and Anatolia, what empire on 
the face of the globe is equal in territorial resources 
and importance to hers ? And the experience of the 
last years has opened her eyes to the advantages she 
possesses, to the abuses she fostered, and to the 
necessity of a change. The Greek revolution taught 
her that a raya was a man—the battle of Navarino 
that a character in Europe is worth having—the 
Russian war made her doubt the height of the 
Balkans and the depth of the Danube—the Alba¬ 
nian insurrection, that the strength of the government 
now rested on the affections of the people. The 
march of Ibrahim Pasha has confirmed all former 
lessons—deepened all former humiliation—showed 
her that justice must quickly be done, if her dominion 
was to endure, and wiped clear away the lingering- 
idea of being so necessary to the balance of European 
power, that she would receive support from England 
and Austria in her last extremity. 


120 PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 

“ Among the Turks and Arab settlers,” says 
Burkhardt, “ the feelings of patriotism are wholly 
extinct The Turkish empire is too extensive, and 
composed of too many different nations and hetero¬ 
geneous parts, for a spirit of patriotism to be diffused 
among its members. A few provinces, inhabited by 
particular races, are distinguished, however, by their 
patriotic sentiments; but the Arnaout feels for his 
own province, not for the empire at large. In Egypt 
and Syria I can venture to affirm, with perhaps an 
exception of the Lebanon mountains, that patriotism 
is extinct.” But the wonder rather is, that this mass 
should so long have held together, not that it should 
be destitute of patriotism now. But though pa¬ 
triotism, in our senses of the word, is wanting, local 
attachments, and the common bonds of race, religion, 
and language, supply its place. On these attachments, 
local administrations are engrafted. The Arnaout, 
the Georgian, the Bedouin, the Druze, the Maronite, 
whose attachments are local, are, or have been, in fact, 
independent, and have entered the public service 
only on stipulated conditions : those populations, also 
the Armenians, the Catholics, the Greeks, the Jews, 
who are scattered over the face of the empire, have, 
as we have already seen, their local, and sometimes 
even a central government, maintaining a certain in¬ 
dependence, by the practice and favour of the 
Porte. The Greeks at Constantinople have their pa¬ 
triarch; so have the Armenians and Armenian 
Catholics; the Jews are subordinate to the Hacham 
bachi. The Turkish authority even grants to these 
dignitaries civil power. But in the East, as in 
Europe, there is a strong tendency to nationalization 


PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 


121 


by race and language. That tendency, fostered by 
the policy of the Porte, may, in its reorganization, 
strengthen, instead of overthrowing; its authority. 
Nor, if reduced to its ancient standard, can I con¬ 
ceive an administration more happily adapted to 
conciliate such various interests, by leaving them to 
adjust themselves, while it represses convulsions 
and useless struggles, and avoids all the danger at¬ 
tendant on experiment and change. Still her con¬ 
dition at this moment is most alarming; because the 
events of her Asiatic may disturb her European domi¬ 
nions. But Turkey cannot remain stationary : Greece 
and Egypt have entered a career of competition with 
her replete with great and important consequences. 

On the chances of reorganization of the Turkish 
empire, I have but one concluding but very important 
remark to make. A man who would be considered 
in Europe perfectly ignorant, may be in Turkey, if 
he is only honest, an able and excellent administrator, 
because he has no general questions to grapple with, 
no party opinions to follow—no letter of the law to 
consult, because not only is he never called on to 
decide on and interfere in questions of administration 
and finance, but his power is only honestly exercised 
when he prevents interference with the natural self¬ 
adjustment of interests. Therefore is it that Euro¬ 
peans form a false estimate, by an erroneous standard, 
of the administrative capacity of Turks, and add to 
the real dangers which surround Turkey, others gra¬ 
tuitously suggested by their European prejudices. 

If a European thinks, with a minister of France, 
that the whole art of government resides in fixing a 
tariff, and “ in reconciling the liberty which commerce 


122 


PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 


requires with the prohibitions which manufactures re¬ 
quire/'* he will set down the Turk as incapable, who 
looks on such science as childish nonsense. Others, 
perhaps, will consider this untutored conviction as a 
happy protection against proficiency in a science only 
to be acquired by deplorable experience. The same 
is to be observed in every other department of 
government. A Turkish reformer requires no in¬ 
struction in fund or bank monopolies—none in bank¬ 
ruptcy laws—none in the mysteries of conveyancing— 
none in corporate rights; there are no laws of entail 
or of primogeniture to be discussed or amended. 
In fact, there are no systematic evils; the reformer 
requires but honesty and firmness of purpose. 
Taking, in all things, the law as it is, he has to re¬ 
store, or rather to fix, the currency—to separate the 
judiciary from the civil authority—to reduce the 
pashas to their real functions of prefects of police; 
he has to organize the army—and there all reforms 
ought to cease. Above all things, religiously ab¬ 
staining from legislating for the municipalities or the 
rayas. If the municipalities be found afterwards 
capable of forming higher representative combina¬ 
tions, the structure will be reared in its own good 
time, and on the sound foundation that already exists. 
That consummation will be little helped even by 
judicious forcing, and may be retarded by injudicious 
interference. 

* Speech of M. Thiers to the Chamber of Agriculture, Commerce, 
&c. Feb. 1833. 


123 


CHAPTER VII. 

COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY. 

The responsibility of individuals for other individuals* 
so admirable a principle of our ancient institutions, 
when the controul accompanied the responsibility, 
when extended to nations, soured at their source the 
benevolent springs of hospitality—made the stranger 
be looked on as a hostage, and commerce as a prey; 
and has bequeathed to our international relations of 
the present day, restrictions and laws that neutralize 
fertility of soil, advantage of climate, and facilities of 
communication,—that place barriers more impassable 
than deserts between neighbouring nations, and fill 
our harbours with fiscal intricacies more fatal to 
commerce than shoals or reefs. Thus has an anti-social 
and misanthropic spirit been instilled into our com¬ 
mercial system, little in harmony with the enlighten¬ 
ment and urbanity which characterise the individuals 
or nations on whom the system operates, and by whom 
it is enforced. 

Sacred hospitality in the East gave man,—whatever 
was his country, his position, his wealth, or his 
poverty,—the means of placing himself within the pale 
of men's affections, and of claiming from their common 


124 COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY. 


sympathies protection against oppression. No doubt 
our own ancestors long preserved their early and 
nomade reverence for their guest ;* but when feudalism 
had divided men into proprietors and property, hos¬ 
pitality was erased alike from the catalogue of duties 
and of national characteristics. Subsequently the 
common bond and influence of Christianity, foreign 
pilgrimage, and the common fanaticism of the cru¬ 
sades, tempered with bigotry, the harshness of bar¬ 
barism : still alien was a term of reproach ; fines were 
capriciously laid upon them, their persons were 
taxed like bales of goods, their property was re¬ 
tained by bargain, not by right, their inheritance, 
at their death, was seized of lawful right by the 
crown ; a right which has not been very long extin¬ 
guished, and in the expressive language of the time, it 
might be said, “ that no man could sin against them.” 
Storms were prayed for as we now pray for rain, and 
pious thanksgivings were offered up by learned pre¬ 
lates for the wrecks which God’s bounty sent them. 
What can be expected from the commercial legis¬ 
lation which originated in such a period, save the 
perpetuation in practice of the effects of antipathies, 
which have long since yielded to juster notions?! 

* Bat in our Anglo-Saxon law the purposes of law are completely 
perverted with regard to hospitality; instead of the written law con¬ 
firming the right which the natural law gave to the host to protect 
his guest from violence, the host was made responsible for the debts, 
the crimes, the penalties, and actions of the guest, who had received 
hospitality for two or three days. Such laws were not calculated to 
encourage hospitality.— See Wilkins, Leg . Sax. p. 9, 12—18. 

-j- It was the habit of depredation that made every traveller an 
object of legal suspicion at this period. From the peril of the roads, 
want of communication, the poverty of the middling and lower 


COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY. 


125 


In the East, the preservation of that primary right 
produced and produces the very contrary effects. 
The merchant was not denied the rights of the guest, 
nor the merchandise those of the merchant, and if a 
powerful chief plundered a stranger, his host became 
his avenger. Throughout the vast dominions of the 
Turks and the Saracens, during the centuries that 
that dominion has existed, under all the vicissitudes 
to which these dynasties and kingdoms have been 
subjected, amidst ruined manufactories and wasted 
fields, we find the exchange of commodities the only 
right respected, hospitality the only obligation ob¬ 
served. 

In the letters addressed to the princes of the in¬ 
terior of Africa in the king’s name, in the view of 
establishing commercial relations with these countries, 
and of obtaining security for merchandise and pro¬ 
tection for merchants, peculiar stress is laid on the 
trader’s character of guest. Freedom of commerce 
is claimed from “ barbarous” princes by the sovereign 
of England, on the plea of the sanctity of hospitality! 

Europeans very generally believe that the trifling 
per centage exacted on commerce in Turkey, and the 
absence of such restrictions as European nations have 
placed on the exchange of commodities, are con¬ 
cessions extorted by the strength of Europe from the 
weakness of Turkey, or advantages gained by the 

classes, and the violence and rapacity of the barons and knights, 
travelling for the purposes of traffic, was very rare. Hence few men 
left their towns or burghs but for pillage or revenge ; and this occa¬ 
sioned that jealous mistrust of the law which operated so long to 
discourage even mercantile journies.—Turners History of the Anglo- 
Saxons, vol. iii. p. 117. 


126 


COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY. 


skill of European diplomatists from the ignorance of 
Turkish administrators. Now, even those who are 
partisans of the European indirect system, and who 
consequently think that the Turks are injuring them¬ 
selves by their freedom of commerce, must, on a 
moment's reflection, perceive, that if the Turks have 
adopted this system against their interests, it has not 
been by the overreaching of diplomatists, or by the 
threat of violence; for the stipulations regulating the 
present custom-house system, to which alone a consul 
or minister appeals, when they are violated, were 
established in the days of Turkey's vigour and power, 
and equally favourable conditions were granted to the 
weakest state, and to the most powerful monarchy. 
In fact, she regarded not who came to buy or sell, but 
her own interests in buying and selling; and while 
powerful and haughty enough to treat with contumely 
the representative of the first prince of Christendom, 
she granted hospitality, with his national laws, with 
the exercise of his creed, and a free market, to the 
humblest merchant of the most insignificant state. 

How much the sanctity of hospitality has influenced 
the commercial legislation of Turkey, may be inferred 
from a species of declaration of commercial principles 
which has been published in the official organ of the 
Turkish government. After contrasting the com¬ 
mercial freedom of Turkey with the restrictions of 
Europe, and the constancy both of supply and price, 
compared with the fluctuation produced by the Euro¬ 
pean system, it proceeds thus: “ It has often been 
repeated that the Turks are encamped in Europe: 
it is certainly not their treatment of strangers that 
has given rise to this idea of precarious occupancy; 


COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY. 127 

the hospitality they offer their guests is not that of 
the tent, nor is it that of the laws ; for the Mussulman 
code, in its double civil and religious character, is 
inapplicable' to those professing another religion; 
but they have done more, they have granted to the 
stranger the safeguard of his own laws, exercised by 
functionaries of his own nation. In this privilege, 
so vast in benefits and in consequences, shines forth 
the admirable spirit of true and lofty hospitality. 

“ In Turkey, and there alone, does hospitality 
present itself, great, noble, and worthy of its honour¬ 
able name ; not the shelter of a stormy day, but that 
hospitality which, elevating itself from a simple move¬ 
ment of humanity to the dignity of a political recep¬ 
tion, combines the future with the present. When 
the stranger has placed his foot on the land of the 
sultan, he is saluted guest (mussafir!) To the 
children of the west, who have confided themselves 
to the care of the Mussulman, hospitality has been 
granted, with these two companions, civil liberty, ac¬ 
cording to the laws, commercial liberty, according to 
the laws of nature and of reason.”* 

It is perhaps necessary to offer some proof of the 
fact which I have assumed as one of public notoriety, 
that commerce is free in Turkey; travellers, with 
one or two exceptions, have said very little that bears 
on the question. Liberty of commerce is often im¬ 
plied, but almost never expressed; the bearings of 
the question is examined by none, and the principle 
universally overlooked. One of the few books f that 
have been written by a commercial man, commends 


Moniteur Ottoman, Sept. 1832. 


f Macgill’s Tunis. 


128 COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY * 

the superior intelligence of the custom-house regu¬ 
lations of Tunis, and points out that port as an ex¬ 
ample to the rest of Turkey—and why ? will it be 
believed—because Tunis had a tariff! because it im¬ 
posed higher duties ! # 

Mr. Thornton, who says most on this subject, tells 
us, that no restrictions are laid on commerce, save on 
the exportation of corn and some other provisions, 
(little more than nominal,) but that the wretched policy 
of the Turks in other respects, renders the freedom 
of trade comparatively of little importance. Here, if 
we have no exposition, at least we have an admis¬ 
sion of the fact. But the wretchedness of the admi¬ 
nistration in other respects, instead of making free¬ 
dom of commerce unimportant, makes that freedom 
of the most vital importance; but it seems as if de¬ 
tractors and sycophants of the Turks alike had united 
to render the system they were describing unintelligi¬ 
ble, by hurried generalisations, and wholesale flattery, 
or abuse. I turn with satisfaction to the interesting 
document above cited, for the Turkish view of their 
principles and policy, and for the effects which their 
system has on markets and industry, which I need 
make no apology for quoting at length. “ It is re~ 


* It is hopeless to look for justice being done to Turkey on this 
point, when such expressions as the following are found even in 
Mr. Maculloch’s Dictionary of Commerce : “ A regulation more at 
variance with every principle of sound policy is not to be found in 
the commercial legislation of either Turkey or Spain.” P. 317. 

Mr. M. is speaking of our timber duties. With all her misgovern- 
ment, Turkey at least may proudly disclaim, on every point, all 
resemblance with the commercial legislation, if it must be so called, 
of England. 


COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY. 


129 


cognized throughout Europe, that it would be useful 
to the great majority, to substitute for the system 
of prohibitions, that of liberty, which theoretical 
men advocate; the difficulty is, to find means to 
separate the future from the past without violent 
rupture. Hence the difficulties of government in 
satisfying all the exigencies of agriculture, industry, 
and commerce, driven in a circle where every mea¬ 
sure in favour of one acts immediately in an inverse 
sense on the other. The endeavour is vain to esta¬ 
blish, between so many crossing interests, a facti¬ 
tious equilibrium which absolute liberty of exchange 
alone can give. 

“ Thus one of the most important questions which 
occupies the meditation of statesmen in Europe, is to 
discover how the palings which pen commerce up in 
narrow spaces, may be thrown down without shocks 
that might endanger public order. 

“ Good sense, tolerance, and hospitality, have long 
ago done for the Ottoman empire what the other 
states of Europe are endeavouring to effect by more 
or less happy political combinations. Since the 
throne of the sultans has been elevated at Constan¬ 
tinople, commercial prohibitions have been unknown; 
they opened all the ports of their empire to the com¬ 
merce, to the manufactures, to the territorial produce 
of the Occident, or, to say better, of the whole world. 
Liberty of commerce has reigned here without limits, 
as large, as extended, as it was possible to be. 
Never has the divan dreamed, under any pretext of 
national interest, or even of reciprocity, of restricting 
that faculty, which has been exercised, and is to this 
day, in the most unlimited sense, by all the nations 

K 


130 


COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY. 


who wish to furnish a portion of the consumption of 
this vast empire, ancl to share in the produce of its 
territory. 

“ Here every object of exchange is admitted and 
circulates, without meeting other obstacle than the 
payment of an infinitely small portion of the value to 
the custom-house. The chimera of a balance of trade 
never entered into heads sensible enough not to 
dream of calculating whether there was most profit in 
buying or selling. Thus the markets of Turkey, sup¬ 
plied from all countries, refusing no objects which 
mercantile spirit puts in circulation, and imposing no 
charge on the vessels that transport them, are seldom 
or never the scenes of those disordered movements, 
occasioned by the sudden deficiency of such or such 
merchandize, which exorbitantly raising prices, are 
the scourges of the lower orders, by unsettling their 
habits, and by inflicting privations. From the system 
of restrictions and prohibitions arise those devouring 
tides and ebbs which sweep away in a day the labour of 
years, and convert commerce into a career of alarms 
and perpetual dangers. In Turkey, where this sys¬ 
tem does not exist, these disastrous effects are 
unknown. 

‘‘The extreme moderation of the duties is the com¬ 
plement of this regime of commercial liberty ; and in 
no portion of the globe are the officers charged with 
the collection of more confiding facility for the valu¬ 
ations, and of so decidedly conciliatory a spirit in 
every transaction regarding commerce. 

“Away with the supposition that these facilities, 
granted to strangers, are concessions extorted from 
weakness ! The dates of the contracts termed capitu- 


COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY. 


131 


lations, which establish the rights actually enjoyed by 
foreign merchants, recall periods at which the Mus¬ 
sulman power was altogether predominant in Europe. 
The first capitulation which France obtained was in 
1535, from Soliman the Canonist (the Magnificent.) 

ec The dispositions of these contracts have become 
antiquated, the fundamental principles remain. Thus, 
three hundred years ago, the sultans, by an act of 
munificence and of reason, anticipated the most ar¬ 
dent desires of civilized Europe, and proclaimed un¬ 
limited freedom of commerce.” 

Here are both argument and authority, at once a 
declaration of the principles of the Turkish govern¬ 
ment, a pledge of its future conduct, a specimen of 
the doctrines it wishes to inculcate, and of the use it 
makes of the press. In Europe we arrive at the 
knowledge of the advantage of free trade, by feeling 
the peculiar evils attached to the prohibition or tax¬ 
ation of each article in detail; still our inquiries are 
met, and our complaints arrested, by the over¬ 
whelming necessity of raising revenue, and the visible 
misery attending every change ; each pressure, just 
or unjust, raises an equal outcry, every change an 
equal opposition. Now in Turkey freedom of com¬ 
merce is not a principle taught by lamentable expe¬ 
rience, and put in practice at the cost of much tem¬ 
porary loss and suffering; it is not the result of 
reasoning on facts collected by persevering industry; 
it is not the effect of opinions widely spread by pub¬ 
lic discussion;—it is a result and consequence of direct 
taxation. Thus, without knowing or suspecting the 
perils they have avoided, revenue is emancipated 
from all such necessities, government from such em¬ 
it 2 


132 


COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY. 


barrassment and opposition, the nation from such 
excitement, and industry and commerce from all re¬ 
striction. The revenue depending on national accu¬ 
mulation, must instantly feel the effects of any inter¬ 
ference with industry; and though the government 
extracts the utmost it can, its own interest prevents 
it from exacting in such a manner as to interfere with 
production. Now whatever credit I am disposed to 
give the Arabs for sound views on these questions, 
I cannot suppose any similar ideas in the Turkish 
government; and if freedom of commerce has con¬ 
tinued to exist up to the present day, I can only 
attribute its preservation to the visible decrease of 
direct revenue that must have instantly followed any 
experiment of indirect taxation. 

In speaking of the Turkish finances, I have endea¬ 
voured to show the superior economy of their plan, 
and the ease it affords the nation, compared with the 
burdens laid upon it; this of course leads to a degree 
of commercial prosperity, which otherwise would not 
exist: but there is a still more important consequence 
flowing from this system, that of rendering commerce 
an operation perfectly simple and intelligible; it has 
no fluctuations to fear, save from the reaction of Eu¬ 
rope ; no fictitious credit is created ; the consumer 
and producer coming almost into contact with each 
other, are not both rendered dependent on powerful 
interests and enormous capitals, that have grown up 
between them, and in opposition to them, employed 
laboriously and precariously in effecting transfers, in 
running risks, in overcoming gratuitous difficulties 
and obstacles, the effects of which are, on the one 
hand, greatly to augment prices, and on the other, to 


COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OP TURKEY. 133 

accumulate wealth in the hands of a few. Freedom 
of exchange prevents sudden acquisition, as sudden 
loss, in the way of trade; none are excluded from 
some means of independent livelihood ; competition 
diminishes the difficulties, expenses, and consequently 
the profits of commercial operations; and the price 
of each article is as equally raised by the labour ex¬ 
pended in its transport and commercial exchange in 
the East, as it is with us, by the labour expended in 
its manufacture. 

It is thus that, notwithstanding the robberies and 
violence of legal and illegal bandits, the commerce of 
the East, without exchanges or post offices, canals or 
railroads, insurances or credit; unprotected by courts 
at home, or consuls abroad ; unprotected by a legis¬ 
lative body, where all interests are duly represented,— 
extends its gigantic operations from Mount Atlas to 
the Yellow Sea ; from the Blue Mountains amid the 
deserts of Africa, to the Baikal in the wastes of Tar¬ 
tary ; and by the slow and noiseless step of the camel, 
maintains the communications, exchanges the produce, 
and supplies the wants of three fourths of the globe. 

It is impossible to witness the arrival of the many- 
tongued caravan, at its resting-place for the night, 
and see, unladen and piled up together, the bales from 
such distant places,—to glance over their very wrap¬ 
pers, and the strange marks and characters which 
they bear,—without being amazed at so eloquent a 
contradiction of our preconceived notions of indis¬ 
criminate despotism and universal insecurity of the 
East. But while we observe the avidity with which 
our goods are sought, the preference now transferred 
from Indian to Birmingham muslins, from Golconda 


134 


COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY. 


to Glasgow chintzes, from Damascus to Sheffield 
steel, from Cashmere shawls to English broad cloth ; 
and while, at the same time, the energies of their 
commercial spirit are brought thus substantially before 
us ; it is, indeed, impossible not to regret that a 
gulf of separation should have so long divided the 
East and the West, and equally impossible not to 
indulge in the hope and anticipation of a vastly ex¬ 
tended traffic with the East, and of all the blessings 
which follow fast and welling in the wake of commerce. 

The effects still apparent of early nomade habits, 
the erection of pilgrimages into a religious obligation, 
hospitality still every where a duty, and often a pri¬ 
vilege, readily account for the respect in which com¬ 
merce is held ; nor is the sacredness 6f its character, 
and its connexion with religion extraordinary, when 
the periodical arrival of caravans immediately relieved 
the wants, and took off* the superfluous produce of a 
country where external commerce stagnated during 
the rest of the year.* The caravan was then hailed 


* The greater extent of coast and facility of sea carriage will 
partly, though, perhaps, not fully account for the absence of caravans 
in the West. The principal obstacles lay in the spirit which feudal¬ 
ism introduced into international law. I have known but of one ex¬ 
periment of the kind made in the west, in America; but it was soon 
disturbed by the inveterate antipathy to free exchange, which, trans¬ 
ported across the Atlantic, has been planted in that virgin soil, in 
strange and withering combination with civil and religious liberty. 

The Mexican government being unable to protect or occupy the 
Texas, granted a large tract of that splendid province to American 
settlers, who became subjects of the Mexican republic—this opened 
to Mexico the prospect of many and important advantages ; the con¬ 
firmation, by occupation, of its right to the province, the protection of 
its frontier from the Indians, the augmentation of its population and 


COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY. 135 


with rapture, the beneficent effects of commerce were 
put in the strongest evidence, and came home to 
each individual. 

Religious feelings have anticipated laws and sup¬ 
plied their place, in rendering sacred that which is 
useful. The great temples of Apollo were the banks 
of Hellas and Ionia—the several games were the fairs 
of Greece—and lands, by consecration to the temples, 
were secured to their owners, as in Turkey at this 
day . In the East, hadgis and fakirs were merchants; 
their religious character protected their merchandize ;* 
the pilgrimages became mighty fairs: nor did the 
influence of the connexion rest here; commerce pre¬ 
served its sacred character, even when entirely dis¬ 
tinct from religion. The penitence, or piety of a 

territorial resources, and, above all, the formation of a population 
towards the United States, possessing the characteristic energy of 
its population, and eminently capable of resisting its encroachments. 
For the supply of their wants, and the disposal of their produce, the 
settlers found it convenient to establish a yearly caravan with Louis¬ 
ville. A barbarous Turkish administration would have thought 
that the province could best understand its own wants; but the 
Mexican government had not emancipated itself from the prejudices 
of Europe. The sequel may easily be anticipated—prohibition of the 
caravan, contempt of the settlers for orders that could not be enforced, 
measures to prevent further settlements, and animosity deeply im¬ 
planted, which, of course, will end in the loss of the province to 
Mexico. 

* “ Murlah is an excellent township, inhabited by a community of 
charuns, who are carriers by profession, though poets by birth. The 
alliance is a curious one, and might appear incongruous. It was the 
sanctity of their office that converted our bardais (bards) into brin- 
garris (carriers), for their persons being sacred, the immunity ex¬ 
tended to their goods, and saved them from ail imposts, so that in 
process of time they became the free traders of Rajpootana.”— Col. 
Tod's Annals of Rajasthan , vol. i. p. 621. 


136 


COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY. 


devout Turk, displays itself in building a bridge or 
a causeway, in constructing a fountain, or planting a 
tree beside it, to shade the traveller or merchant; 
but this feeling is particularly striking in the erection 
of stores for the purposes of commerce exclusively. 
The Turk, who builds his own habitation of lath and 
plaster, erects a Han of solid stone, with spacious 
courts, and iron gates, to protect commerce from the 
too frequent casualties of insurrection and fire. iC They 
are for all men, of whatever quality, condition, or 
religion ; there the poorest may have room, and the 
richest have no more.” # 

The convulsions and anarchy of the East have, of 
course, pressed most fatally on commerce at times; 
but the return of comparative order, or tranquillity, 
has always been accompanied by a return to freedom 
of commerce: at times it has been entirely relieved 
from all exactions whatever. It has, however, gene¬ 
rally been subject to tolls and p£age, more particularly 
when merely transit. 

The extreme simplicity of commerce, from the 
absence of all legislation on the subject, is visible in 
the establishment of a merchant: no books, save one 
of common entry, are kept; no credits (I do not 
allude to the scales of the Levant) are given; no bills 
discounted ; no bonds, nor even receipts; the trans¬ 
actions are all for ready money; no fictitious capital 
is created; no risk, or loss from bankruptcy,-j- to 

* Wheeler. 

f When people in Europe hear of such things as no bankruptcies, 
in a country where law can hardly be said to exist, while, notwith¬ 
standing all our legislation on the subject, bankruptcy with us forms 
so large a portion of mercantile risks, they either doubt the fact, or 


COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY. 


137 


incur. A merchant, whose capital may exceed twenty 
thousand pounds, will, very possibly, be without a 
clerk; and a small box, which he places on his 
carpet, and leans his elbow on, encloses, at once, his 
bank and counting house. 

The merchant who travels by caravan, has really 
few risks to encounter, and but trifling expenses. 
He lodges without expense, and in full security, in a 
Han; he is never alarmed by the dangers of fluc¬ 
tuations of price; he has nothing to fear from the 
ignorance or dishonesty of an agent or broker; he 
brings his goods, or his money, to be exchanged for 
the article he wants; sees, and examines it before he 
buys ; he has not the precarious chance of realizing a 
large fortune, but he has the certainty of reaping 
the reward of his industry. With very small capital 
speculations can be undertaken. A merchant can 
commence traffic without corporate rights or previous 
connexion; intelligence, industry * perseverance, and 
frugality, are the qualifications he requires, and 
however small may be his profits, if his expenses are 
still smaller, he considers himself on the road to 
wealth. Their “ habits are therefore not frugal, but 


account for it by supposing, that the commerce is insignificant. But 
to bear out the wisdom of the Turkish plan, and to show its applica¬ 
bility to every state of society, an example is furnished by the com¬ 
mercial city which is second only to London, and which has aban¬ 
doned all legislation whatever for bankruptcy. The result has been 
rapid, bevond all calculation, and shows how intimately connected 
crimes are with legislation. In the city, and state of New York, 
the bankruptcies were— 


In 1829 

a 

3,507 

1830 

<c 

3,126 

1831 

“ 

1,644 

1832 


432 


138 


COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY. 


penurious.” It may be said of them, as Sir W. 
Temple said of the merchants of Antwerp of his day, 

“ They furnish infinite luxury, which they never prac¬ 
tice, and traffic in pleasures which they never taste.” 

The perfect simplicity of barter and the absence of 
mystery, risks, and fluctuations, have spread the spi¬ 
rit of commerce throughout the whole mass of the po¬ 
pulation ; a boy of twelve years of age may have as 
much consideration, as a merchant, as a man of forty.* 

/ There is no portion of the population living by the 
exercise of the liberal professions, none exist by spe¬ 
culating in government securities; there are no an¬ 
nuitants receiving a fixed per centage on capital, or 
following avocations, which enable them to maintain 
themselves independently of agricultural or commer¬ 
cial pursuits ; every man must put his hands or 
his capital to some useful purpose, hence is the 
whole population constantly occupied in some specu¬ 
lation, some matter of interest or profit. If you see 
a Turk meditating in a corner, it is on some specula¬ 
tion, the purchase of a revenue farm, or the propriety 
of a loan at sixty per cent.; if you see pen or paper 
in his hand, it is making or checking an account; if \ 


# No inconsiderable portion of the commercial acuteness, and the 
family attachment, of the Easterns generally, may be attributed 
to their early application to business, and to the early part they take 
in the domestic concerns of the family. The schools among the 
Greek peasantry instruct the children, for a couple of hours at most, 
in the intervals of labour ; but do not, like ours, fix them on benches 
for eight hours or more, taxed with probably useless studies, to the 
ruin of their mental energies and their bodily development; to 
us, therefore, the children in the East never having been made chil¬ 
dren of, look like little men. 


COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY. 


139 


there is a disturbance in the street, it is a disputed | 
barter; whether in the streets or in-doors, whether 
in a coffee-house, a serai, or a bazaar; whatever the \ 
rank, nation, language, of the persons around you, \ 
traffic, barter, gain, are the prevailing impulses; i 
grusch, para, florin, lira, asper, amidst the Babel \ 
of tongues, are the universally intelligible sounds. ^ 

The vast variety of coins, their extreme subdivi¬ 
sions, the constant change of relative value, the dif¬ 
ferences of value in neighbouring pashalics, the mi¬ 
nuteness of calculations of interest and agio, render 
all classes wonderfully expert in arithmetic. 

The immunities which commerce and merchants en¬ 
joy, are unfortunately not extended to other avoca¬ 
tions ; the cultivator of the soil is ever a helpless 
prey to injustice and oppression. The government 
agents have to suffer in their turn from the cruelty 
and rapacity of which they themselves have been 
guilty; and the manufacturer has to bear his full 
share of the common insecurity; he is fixed to the 
spot, and cannot escape the grasp of the local governor. 
The raw material monopolized by a bey or ayan, 
may be forced upon him at a higher price than he 
could purchase it himself, and perhaps of inferior 
quality; fines may be imposed on him, he may be 
taken for forced labour, or troops maybe quartered on 
his workshop.* 

* Nothing can show more strongly the capabilities and resources, 
which the East neglects or misuses, than such facts as the following : 

—“ The city of Isfahan has more than doubled its inhabitants, and 
quadrupled its manufactures of rich silk and brocade, during the 
twenty years that Haji Ibrahim has been governor /’—Sir John 
Malcolm's Sketches of Persia, vol. ii. p. 184. 


140 COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY. 

However much the consequences of tyranny in the 
East are to be deplored, it cannot fail to encourage 
our anticipations of future regeneration, by means of 
our own commercial connexion with it, when we see 
that the discouragement of manufactures, will add the 
necessity of the people to the other inducements, to 
obtain, through respected commerce, the produce 
of our looms, and prevent the impositions of those 
fatal restrictions, which in Europe have so powerfully 
arrested the developement of human energy and the 
increase of national wealth. If it is an immediate 
advantage to those who are unmolested in their indus¬ 
try, to Turks themselves, to exchange their super¬ 
fluous produce, when they can, for our manufactures, 
how much more important is it for the peasant of 
the interior, to obtain thus unobserved a supply, and 
to dispose of his produce in return. 

Hitherto, in its vast ramifications, the circulation of 
commerce has been maintained by the very insecurity 
of the government and by the greater consideration 
granted to this than to its sister blessings, agriculture 
and manufacture. In the thousands of leagues from 
east to west over which it extends, between latitudes 
nearly parallel, and climates not very dissimilar, if 
not all, at least many of the objects of commerce 
might have been produced in many other localities 
besides those to which they have been confined, and 
whence they have at present to be exportd. It 
is thus, probably, that Tunis has remained so long in 
possession exclusively of the manufacture of red caps. 
Cashmere of shawls ; thatMussulepatam has remained 
peculiarly celebrated for chintzes, Bagdat for bro¬ 
cades, Ispahan for velvets, Herat for carpets, Bo- 


COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY. 141 


charn for camelets and felts, Galconda, Guzerat, 
Mussul and Dacca, for muslins ; ebony has continued 
to be brought from Cochin China, aloes from Chiamsi, 
benzoin and camphor from Sumatra and Java. # It is on 
this that our hopes of commercial prosperity must rest, 
that notwithstanding eastern despotism, the means of 
exchanging commodities are open. It is established, 
that our cottons and muslins, calicoes, chintzes, &c., 
are, if not better, infinitely cheaper than those of the 
East. Taste is gradually directing itself to our manu¬ 
factures, and money less expended than formerly on 
furs, jewels, Persian and Damascus blades, amber 
mouth-pieces and shawls. We may calculate, at no 
remote period, if, indeed, political troubles are ar¬ 
rested, of supplying the necessaries as well as the 
luxuries of the whole of the eastern population, whose 
attention will thus be exclusively directed to agricul¬ 
ture, and the furnishing of raw produce; when we 
can take from them their produce in return for our 
wares, or find them the means of exchanging it. 
These changed circumstances are beginning to pro¬ 
duce their effects. Persia, which lately drew raw 
silk from Turkey for its manufactures, now has com¬ 
menced to import wrought silk from England ; and 
the current of precious metals, which a few years ago 
carried yearly 5,000,000/. towards the east, is now 

* This is a general rule with a whole host of exceptions. Silk in 
India, tobacco all over the East, tombac at Siraz, Sea Island cotton 
in Egypt. Ali Pasha attempted to transport the culture of the rose 
from Eski Serai to Castoria; his prototype Zalim of Kotah, at¬ 
tempted also to naturalize the Cashmere at Kotah; it has partially 
succeeded at Delhi; a colony of Damascus reproduces its steel at 
Mushed, &c. 


142 COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY. 

drawn backwards by the spinning mules and power 
looms of England. 

It is not in looking on the miracles of machinery, 
or the accumulation of wealth at home, that a just 
idea can be formed of the greatness of England, or 
of the influence she exercises on the fate of millions 
of men with whom she has no visible connexion. 
Take some remote village of Turkey, and trace there 
the effects of England’s machinery. This village 
grows corn and tobacco and cotton; it has vines and 
flocks; it has enough of the necessaries of life for sub¬ 
sistence, and cotton, and wool, and hides, for clothing; 
and grows no more except the portion required by 
government, which, if the population is Turkish, is very 
small. This village, then, employs one half, say, of 
its labour in agriculture, and one half in manu¬ 
facturing its cotton into cloths, its wool into carpets, 
its hides into zarouchia, while fields lie uncultivated 
around it. It is removed from the road, not to be 
subject to the passage of troops, and so placed as 
to be hidden from the observation of travellers. Its 
inhabitants have no inducement to accumulate wealth, 
or to gain information ; they are led to form no new 
desires, to feel no wants by intercourse or traffic 
with the surrounding country, because they find 
weaving their own cotton cheaper and less laborious 
than raising an additional supply of corn to exchange 
for the cotton cloth of their neighbours, who have no 
better machinery or greater expertness than them¬ 
selves. But reduce prices so as to make it their 
interest to purchase—present the goods and the 
means of exchange, the whole scene instantly changes; 
communications are opened, connexions established, 


COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY. 


143 


desires created, energies raised, and progress com¬ 
mences. Commerce naturally, in every case, has 
this effect, but how important is that effect, where 
the objects of it are the clothing of the mass of the 
nation? The manufacture of cotton is the principal 
in-door occupation of the greater portion of the East— 
of above sixty millions of men, with whom our future 
commerce will probably be carried on through the 
scales of the Levant—of men who are applying their 
labour to manufacture the cotton, and wool, and 
silk, that clothe them, while their fields lie un¬ 
cultivated— under a climate producing all those 
articles which at present give the highest remu¬ 
neration for labour. Throughout these vast and 
varied regions, these resources have lain dormant, as 
in the Turkish village; because hitherto the first 
object of necessity was not furnished to them cheap 
enough to induce them to forego its manufacture, 
and turn their attention to cultivation. How im¬ 
portant, then, is it to establish the fact, that our 
cottons are at a sufficiently low price to induce them 
to forego the home manufacture! It is superfluous 
to follow out the vast consequences thence to be 
deduced; but it may not be uninstructive to remark, 
that perhaps a few pence diminution of price and 
charges in a pound sterling, may open or close the 
door of the market of a village, and for the same 
reason of a quarter of the globe, to our manufactures. 

The village which was insulated before, now seeks 
to connect itself with the lines of communication with 
the principal marts; cultivation extends, wealth 
accumulates, instruction follows, desire for new 
objects increases, produce is raised, England’s looms 


144 


COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OP TURKEY. 


have called this prosperity into existence, but she 
herself imposes restrictions on the only return the 
Turkish peasant can make, and therefore cripples 
his ability to purchase. From the year 1827 to 1830, 
our exports have increased from 531,704/. to 
1,139,616/.;* but there is no corresponding increase 
in our returns. England, like a large haberdashery 
and hardware store, displays to the longing eyes of 
the peasantry of the world, calicoes, long cloths, 
ginghams, zebras, scissors and razors; but if the 
merchant will not use the peasant’s produce—nay, 
will not allow him to leave it, until exchanged, at his 
warehouse, the peasant, without money or credit, 
must wish in vain, and return home empty-handed. 

To appreciate the effect of our restrictions on 
commerce—to form some appropriate calculation of 
the wonderful power this country does exercise, and 
which she may increase, if she chooses, to an incalcu¬ 
lable extent -it is, I think, absolutely necessary to have 
practically examined, to have seen with one’s eyes, 
to have felt with one’s hands, the material and palpable 
contrast of their and our powers of production. Wan¬ 
dering through a village fair in the centre of Roumelie, 

* Of these sums cottons formed in the first year £464,873, and in 
the last £1,037,160. Yet notwithstanding- this rapidly increasing 
importation of our wove cottons, the demand for twist, to mix with 
home-spun cotton yarn or silk, has advanced as rapidly. While this 
fact confirms our superiority, even in the most elementary portion of 
the manufacture, it proves that our present supply has, comparatively 
speaking, little affected the home manufacture, and leaves us to infer 
the vastness of the demand which we shall soon have to meet. From 
1828 to 1831, the exportation of cotton yarn to Turkey has been as 
follows: £10,834.—£39,920.—£95,355.—£105,615. However, 
the year 1828 is far below the general average. 


COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY. 145 

T have observed this circulation at its extreme point, 
effecting its return, and changing its form with its 
direction, without the confusing medium of ex¬ 
changes, custom-houses, protections, drawbacks— 
without any uncertainty as to the conclusions to be 
drawn from them, or doubts as to their accuracy. 
I could not then help comparing commerce to a cir¬ 
culation like that of the human frame, animating the 
habitable globe; which, expelled from England as 
the heart, is hurried along through the larger vessels; 
then dispersing itself, by the minutest channels, over 
the whole body, repairs exhaustion, supplies force, 
adjusts the substance to the functions, the powers to 
the necessities; and extending ever further and fur¬ 
ther its growth, and augmenting its strength, endows 
the whole with motion and with life. The power of the 
heart could have driven forth a much larger quantity 
of blood, but for the congestion of the returning 
fluids in the receiving veins. The cause of this con¬ 
gestion appeared only in examining the heart itself; 
the passages through which the blood was expelled 
were in their natural flexible and active state; the 
vessels by which the returning fluid was poured in, 
were infected with the most strange diseases—one 
was contracted so as to allow the life blood to pass 
but drop by drop—one was ossified into lifeless in¬ 
sensibility—one was afflicted by vast aneurisms, where 
masses of the agile fluid remained in complete stag¬ 
nation—others were entirely closed, and the blood 
had to force open new and circuitous passages, or 
even to burst through the natural and legitimate 
channels. But the strangest part of the history is 
that this complication of diseases is not brought on 


146 COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY. 

by natural and unavoidable causes, but by this, that 
the individual to whom this heart belongs, having a 
burden to bear, lays the weight of that burden on his 
palpitating breast, instead of casting it on his brawny 
shoulders. # 

It has been remarked, that the price of labour in 
Turkey, in proportion to the price of corn, is higher 
than in any country in Europe. The cause of this 
very surprising fact has been found by some in the 
great number of feast-days; the peasant requiring 
to gain, during his days of labour, the means of sup- 


* It would seem that in commercial legislation wrong was ever 
ready to answer wrong, but that liberality is doomed never to meet 
with its reward, or freedom with reciprocity. It is particularly from 
those countries which unrestrictedly admit our manufactures, that 
our shipping find no return cargo. To this the Brazils, the Philip¬ 
pine Islands, &c. bear testimony, as well as Turkey. In restrictions 
on commerce, it may be difficult to point out one in its sphere more 
absurd than another; the following, therefore, does not merit special 
condemnation. The return cargoes from Turkey, except the fruit 
ships, are exceedingly light; therefore heavy goods might be taken 
in even by laden ships, without loss of freight. Milo abounds in 
admirable mill-stones, which, I believe, answer better than the French 
burr for the hard wheat of the Black Sea, so much preferred in the 
Levant to the soft, though not so in England, for want of proper 
stones. These stones, of full dimensions, might be shipped at Milo 
for five or six pounds the pair. But will they answer here? 
Masters of merchantmen are not millers, to be able to judge ; but 
even if a pair were bought on trial, they would be met with a duty 
of £11. 8s.! The French burrs pay but £3. 16s. the 100, and the 
stones made from them cost £35. 

An extensive shipment of ginghams for Manilla was lately (end 
ot 1832) ordered from England ; the order was subsequently trans¬ 
ferred to Rouen, notwithstanding the inferiority of the French 
article, because the custom- house engaged itself to grant either franc 
entry or diminished duties for the return cargo ! 


COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY. 147 

port for the days of idleness. But, do the saints’ days 
of Spain enhance in that country the value of man’s 
labour ? The fact is, that the price of labour is high, 
because labour is exceedingly productive, and more 
productive than in any other country of Europe, mu- 
tatis mutandis , because commerce and industry are 
wholly unshackled; but that very freedom of com¬ 
merce renders industry unproductive, when applied to 
the manufacture of goods, that commerce can furnish 
at a cheaper rate; and hence, throughout Turkey, 
all manufacturers have lately suffered a ruinous fall 
in wages, which has affected wages generally ; but as 
the great mass of production is the result of domestic 
industry, filling the intervals of other work, the con¬ 
sequence of that fall of wages has not transferred to 
us, as yet, more than a small portion of the supply of 
the country. 

However, the agricultural population, when fully 
employed, have little time to spare for manufactures. 
The women employ a great portion of their time in 
grinding corn with the hand-mill, and in carrying 
water. The universal taste for embroidery consumes 
a large portion —and the labour attendant on the cul¬ 
tivation of tobacco, which falls to the women’s share 
—the tending of silk-worms—the picking and sort¬ 
ing of cotton, &c. are employments far more profit¬ 
able than spinning or weaving: during periods of 
anarchy, agriculture is arrested; they then find some 
resource in domestic manufacture; but when tran¬ 
quillity is restored, domestic manufacture becomes 
excessively expensive. 

The profits have been reduced to one-half, and 
sometimes to one-third, by the introduction of Eng- 

l 2 


148 COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY. 

lish cottons, which, though they have reduced the 
home price, and arrested the export of cotton-yarn 
from Turkey, have not yet supplanted the home 
manufacture in any visible degree; for, until tran¬ 
quillity has allowed agriculture to revive, the peo¬ 
ple must go on working merely for bread, and 
reducing their price, in a struggle of hopeless com* 
petition. The industry, however, of the women and 
children is most remarkable ; in every interval of la¬ 
bour, tending the cattle, carrying water, the spindle and 
distaff, as in the days of Xerxes, is never out of their 
hands. The children are as assiduously at work, 
from the moment their little fingers can turn the 
spindle. About Ambelakia, the former focus of the 
cotton-yarn trade, the peasantry has suffered dread¬ 
fully from this, though former!)" the women could 
earn as much in-doors, as their husbands in the field; 
at present, their daily profit (1831) does not exceed 
twenty paras, if realized, for often they cannot dis¬ 
pose of the yarn when spun. # 

piastres, paras. 

* Five okes of uncleaned cotton, at seventeen paras . 2 5 

Labour of a woman for two days, (seven farthings per day) 0 35 

Carding, by vibrations of a cat-gut . . 0 10 

Spinning, a woman's unremitting labour for a week 5 30 

Loss of cotton, exceeding an oke ot uncleaned cotton . 0 20 

Value of one oke of cotton-yarn . . Prs. 9 00 

Here a woman’s labour makes but 2 d. per day, while field-labour, 
according to the season of the year, ranges from 4 d. to 6d .; and at 
this rate, the pound of coarse cotton-yarn cost in spinning 5 d. 

One oke of this thread weaves into forty pikes,f seven-eighths 
wide, (thirty-two yards, twenty-one inches wide,) worth twenty 
piastres, and is the work of one man for three days. This leaves 
the weaver about lOd. per day, and shows that we have not yet 


f Pike three quarters of a yard. 




COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OP TURKEY. 149 

Under such unfavourable prospects, manufacture, 
there can be no doubt, as soon as anarchy ceases, 
will give no longer employment to any portion of the 
population, if it can be supplied cheap enough from 
Europe; and if the produce of the country can be 
taken in exchange. It is impossible to ascertain, with 
any approximation to correctness, either the quantity 
of labour expended at present in supplying the'-de¬ 
mand, or the increase of exchangeable commodities, 
which the brightening prospects of the country may 
call forth. The following calculation will at least 
prove the importance of this branch of commerce. 

In the southern provinces, the poorest family re¬ 
quires twenty okes of uncleaned cotton, and ten of wool 
for its yearly consumption, and the manufacture of 
these occupies one third of their in-door labour. The 
twenty okes of uncleaned cotton will be reduced to 
four of manufactured, or eleven pounds ; of this eight 
pounds will consist of such stuff as they would wil¬ 
lingly purchase if they had the means. Handkerchiefs, 
shirting, long-cloth, coarse cotton stuffs, napkins, and 
clothing in general. It must be recollected that this 


brought our coarse cottons into the same competition with theirs, as 
we have our yarn. Their own yarn being unequal, heavy in weav¬ 
ing, and liable to break, the weavers prefer much the English 
yarn. When they weave entirely with it, from one oke, which costs 
them twenty piastres, they weave seventy pikes, which sell for fifty- 
two and a half piastres, or thirty paras per pike ; but the peasants 
prefer half and half,—the warp (stimoni) of English yarn, which 
is less liable to break, and allows the shuttle to run more freely—■ 
the woof (yfani) of home spun, which gives the stuff more body. 
The country people are content to pay for this, as much as for the 
cloth, entirely wove of English yarn, of which the cost price is one 
fifth higher. This then is the article we ought to imitate. 


150 COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY. 

is the very poorest class. Two pounds* then* for 
each individual will certainly be far below the mark ; 
but this would give us* taking the population at 
twelve millions* 24*000*000 pounds of manufactured 
cotton, for European Turkey and Greece. The coarse 
cotton cloth which they require averages, as above 
stated, seventy pikes* at thirty paras per oke* or 
rather more than five shillings per pound—at least 
one fourth more than the value of such stuff in 
England* which makes <£*5,000*000. This embraces 
only the coarse and heavy stuffs* used by the pea¬ 
santry* and which do not figure at all in our first ex¬ 
ports. These consisted of jaconets* tangibs* calicos* 
lappets* dimmities* ginghams* imitation shawls, hand¬ 
kerchiefs* and chintzes. The Americans were the 
first to turn their attention to the coarse unbleached 
cotton stuffs. Plain goods now form one half of our 
assortments ; but* as I have above remarked* al¬ 
though our handkerchiefs and imitation shawls are 
commonly to be seen throughout the villages* and 
at the country fairs, we can scarcely be said to 
have entered on the branch to which our future 
commerce will be chiefly indebted. Native manufac¬ 
tories for the former articles have nearly ceased to 
work : of six hundred looms, for muslins* at Scutari* 
that were busily employed in 1812* forty only re¬ 
mained in 1821: in 1812 there w ere two thousand 
weaving establishments at Tournovo, in 1830 there 
were only two hundred. 

The change of taste among the Turks has con¬ 
spired* with other circumstances, to give our manu¬ 
factures a favour which we could not reasonably have 
expected. We are still far from rivalling in fineness 


COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY. 


151 


the muslins and chintzes of the East; our red is gene¬ 
rally inferior to theirs, and formerly they would look 
neither at our cottons nor our hardware. Cheapness, 
substance, and material value, are now more attended 
to, and turbans and belts are in part thrown aside; 
still the consumption of eastern articles is immense, 
and the intricacy of their circulation throughout the 
country is quite surprising. I subjoin a list of the 
caravans which used to arrive in the course of the 
year at Aleppo, with the principal objects brought 
by each, from which it will be observed what a large 
portion of fine cottons form the internal commerce.* 


* Caravans to Aleppo bring from Bassora and Bagdad— 

1. Pearls, cottons, shawls, Indian drugs, perfumes, porcelain; 
from China, matts ; from Arabia, camels. 

2. From Moussul and Merdin—cotton-yarn and cotton stuff’s, galls. 

3. Diarbekir—Indians, died cotton and cotton stuffs, red cotton, 
thread, Morocco leather, goat’s wool, galls. 

4. Marach—timber, furs, goafs’ hair. 

5. Orfa—white cotton, and cotton stuffs, Morocco leather, goats’ 
hair. 

6. Antab—white cotton stuffs, wrought Morocco leather. 

7. Killis—cotton stuff’s, and cotton wool and yarn, silk, galls, oil. 

8. Idlib and Riha—5,000 quintals of soap, oil. 

9. Van Teflis and Kars—chiefly furs. 

10. Erzerum and Livas—furs, goat’s hair, wax, gum ammoniac. 

11. Guzun—linens, felt. 

12. Tocat—silk, fur, anise, copper. 4 


4 Numerous convoys of camels usually transported the copper. 
These were not unfrequently taken for forced labour. The copper 
was deposited in a caravanserai, and the camel drivers would return, 
and continue the transport. Copper not being perishable, was 
more subject to be interrupted in this way than any other merchan¬ 
dize, but an instance of the copper so stopped (often for many 
months) having been lost or stolen, was unknown. 



152 


COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY. 


Of eleven caravans, arriving in opposite directions, 
the principal merchandize is cotton goods, and these 
in transit. An experienced Algerine merchant, cal¬ 
culated, ten years ago, the value of muslins consumed 
in Turkey and in Africa at £ 10,000,000. annually—a 
sum apparently incredible. This individual, con¬ 
vinced of the advantages of a direct trade between 
England and the Barbary coast, which had previously 
been carried on through Leghorn, Genoa, and Gi¬ 
braltar, but with very little spirit, # came to Eng- 

13. Trebizonde—cotton stuffs, and lint. 

14. Malatic—cotton stuffs, dried fruits. 

15. Latakia—silk, Mokkah coffee, rice, and Egyptian produce. 

16. Constantinople—cotton and woollen stuffs of Germany, printed 
muslins, wrought amber, and fur. 

17. Broussa—silk, satin, and velvet sofa covers. 

18. Smyrna—European cotton and woollen stuffs, hardware, hor- 
logerie, &c. 

19. Tripoli of Syria—silk. 

20. Damascus—Mokkah coffee, soap, silk, produce of Damascus 
looms, cotton yarn of India, dried fruit. 

21. Mecca—coffee, scented woods, pearls, ambergris, drugs of 
Arabia and India. 

* “ From the circumstance of there being no direct trade from 
this country with Tripoli, or, 1 believe, with any of the ports of 
Barbary, English goods (the demand for which is daily increasing, 
amongst a population of not less that five millions, within six hun¬ 
dred miles of the coast) are sold at enormous prices, although fre¬ 
quently of the very worst description. Arab or Moor merchants, 
who alone have hitherto ventured into the interior, are encouraged 
and treated with great liberality. After a residence of less than 
nine years, several of them are known to have returned with fortunes 
of 15 and 20,000 dollars, which might probably have been doubled 
by more intelligent traders, as the commodities, chiefly European, 
are purchased at a full advance on the European price of 250 per 
cent.”— Denham's Narrative, p. 329. Articles in demand , cottons , 
silks, arms, hardware , <^c. 


COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY. 


153 


land, and speculated at once to the amount of £250, 000. 
Political causes put an end to this opening traffic; 
but then it was his opinion, that England had only 
herself and her consular system to blame, if she did 
not supply the whole of central and maritime Africa. 


154 


CHAPTER VIII. 


A very important question is—what nations are able 
to compete with us—the quality and price of their 
goods, their means of exchange, and facilities of 
transport. 

I have mentioned the coarse stuffs of the Ame¬ 
ricans ; but it is abundantly evident, that if we can 
undersell the Americans in their own markets, they 
cannot cope with us in the markets of Turkey, unless 
by means of our restrictions on returns. There is 
little doubt that, had the company continued to exist, 
it would have transferred from us to them the cotton 
trade, as it did the colonial, at a time when their 
flag was not recognized, when they had neither con¬ 
suls nor commercial establishments, and when the 
seas were covered with our pendants, and Sicily and 
Italy were occupied by our troops. The erection of 
Malta into a free port gave the native merchants an 
English market, beyond the control of the company, 
rendered their monopoly void, and led to its quiet 
and voluntary extinction; but as America takes 
fruit and silk, and a considerable quantity of opium,* 

* When the commercial monopoly of the East India Company 
ceases, this traffic will probably cease. The Indian opium, at pre- 


COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY. 


155 


for her China trade, she can advantageously dispose 
of some cotton in return. ' 

Our principal rival in Turkey in Europe is Austria, 
or rather Germany, which has hitherto carried on 
immense traffic in this quarter. The fair of Leipsic 
supplies a great proportion of mixed goods, and 
we have lately seen even Persians carrying gold thi¬ 
ther, for American furs. The iron of Stiria has a 
well-deserved celebrity ; the linens of Lusatia and 
Saxony are unrivalled; the cottons of Bohemia are 
good, and adapted to the wants and tastes of the 
country ; and the light cloths of Belgium are in the 
highest esteem throughout Turkey. Brass, wrought 
and gilt, is supplied by Vienna, glass by Bohemia, 
porcelain by Vienna and Saxony. The proximity 
of the two countries, long-established connexions, 
and the facilities afforded to the Greek merchants, 
of making up their assortments in person, foster a 
traffic, naturally immense, and which Austria directs 
her utmost attention to encourage, according to her 
commercial lights. 

Mr. Beaujour enters into elaborate calculations to 
prove that the manufactures of France were cheaper 
and better than those of Germany, and knows not 
how to account for their being almost entirely sup¬ 
planted by those of the latter country; he does not 
seem to have felt that European governments have 
uniformly sacrificed the interests of their commerce to 
the gains and privileges of their merchants, and the 

sent so much preferred to that of Turkey, will, when reduced in 
price, exclude the latter from the China market. Yet the Turkey 
opium is calculated by Thompson to contain three times as much 
morphia as that of India. 


156 COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY. 

dignity of their consuls. He himself, in two lines, 
explains the cause of the prosperity of German com¬ 
merce. “ Germany has a factory and a consul at 
Salonica ; but as its commerce with Turkey is free , 
the Greeks have taken possession of it, and the 
consul and factory have little to do.” # 

Yet, notwithstanding the concurrence of so many 
favourable circumstances, the commerce of Austria 
has, for twenty years, been on the decline; and must 
decline further, in the number at least of articles, when 
direct and habitual communications are established 
with England, from the operation of two sets of 
causes:—first, the obstacles which the change of cir¬ 
cumstances, and the regulations of Austria, have 
raised to this traffic ; and secondly, the superiority of 
the English manufactures. 

These obstacles apply not to the introduction of 
Austrian goods, but to the effecting of returns. These 
returns consisted of red cotton yarn from Ambelakia, 
cotton wool from Serres, which once supplied all the 
manufactures of Germany; tobacco from Jenidje, 
hides and swine from Servia, silk, dyes, wool, and 
other articles not worth enumerating. But formerly, 
the exports of Turkey to Germany greatly exceed¬ 
ed the imports. These were, at the close of the 
last century, for Roumelie ^80,000, and the exports 
^200,000; the difference was paid in the produce of 
the mines of Hungary and Transylvania, coined ex¬ 
pressly for the Turkish market. But now cotton yarn, 
instead of being exported, is imported into Turkey; 
the cotton wool, for the German manufactures, now 
comes from Egypt, by Trieste; Turkish tobacco is 
* Tableau du Commerce de la Grece, Lettrc xviii. 


COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY. 157 

prohibited, for the encouragement of Hungarian to¬ 
bacco ; Germany seeks a vent for her increasing 
production of wool: hides and swine are heavily 
taxed—and a return, in specie, involves the loss, 
either apparent in the exchange, or non-apparent in 
the increased price of the imported goods, of all the 
difference between the monetary and real value of the 
Turkish coin. If Turkey exported, from some other 
point, value to Germany or to Europe, that balanced 
the imports here, or elsewhere, this loss would be 
avoided, because, by bill, value would be exchanged 
for value, in either country, without having recourse 
to the forced denomination of the sultan’s coin; but 
as the currency is managed at present, the effect on 
commerce is incalculably detrimental; and so obsti¬ 
nately does the government adhere to its system, that 
each Vienna post, once a fortnight, exports a million 
of piastres, in order to pay for goods, or to answer 
bills simultaneously drawn; and imports sequins, to 
coin into piastres, of a constantly lowering standard. 

It is curious that while Europe, of all articles cir¬ 
culated by commerce, has consented to allow free 
ingress and egress to the precious metals alone, 
Turkey has subjected these alone to legislative re¬ 
striction ; # the cause of the deviation, in both cases, 
from the common practice in this single instance, was, 
perhaps, the idea of intrinsic value of the precious 


* Our treaties with Turkey particularly stipulate free export and 
import of ducats and sequins, nor does Turkey place any obstacle 
in the way of their introduction or extraction ; but she does to their 
circulation, even as merchandize. 

An Arab commentator on Makrizi, quoted in M. de Sacy’s Chres- 
tomathie Arabe, observes, that “legislative interference with the 


158 COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY. 

metals. It is to be hoped, that Turkey will soon put 
them on the footing of other merchandize; and may 
it not also be hoped, that Europe, seeing the increased 
prosperity that the freedom of these objects of ex¬ 
change has produced, will raise all other objects 
equally—receiving their value from labour, and their 
price from demand—to the same state of independence. 

But the crowning obstacle in the way of German 
commerce is the quarantine. Austria takes great 
credit to herself for the vast expense she incurs, and 
for the loss her commerce suffers in being the bulwark 
of Europe against the infection of Turkey. One single 
fact will show the hollowness of her philanthropic 
pretensions. Her southern boundary is the Save to 
Belgrade, and the Danube to Orsova; the great 
difficulty of interrupting the communications across 
these rivers, every where abounding in monoxylos, or 
little boats of hollowed trees, must be very apparent; 
and if she wished to prevent, or if she really feared 
contact, she would hold out no inducements to smug¬ 
gling, thereby to endanger the whole of Europe, and 
render nugatory her sanatory cordons, and the heavy 
expense and losses they occasion; or if she runs the 
risk of smuggling, it will, of course, be supposed it 
is for the protection of some important branch of 
revenue : no such thing—a paltry gabelle on salt has 
established the nightly intercommunication of the tribes 
on the opposite banks. The fact is, that the Sclavonic 

currency, so as to elevate or depreciate its value, is hurtful to the 
subjects and to commerce, and involves it in great and ruinous evils ; 
this has caused the slaughter of vizirs and great men, foments do¬ 
mestic troubles, and excites civil war.” This is prophetic of the 
actual crisis. 


COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OP TURKEY. 


159 


military colonists, settled by Maria Theresa on the 
borders of Hungary and Transylvania, to overawe 
the Hungarians and separate them from the Turks, 
no less than to defend the empire, are the key-stones 
of Austria’s military organization; and she endeavours 
to prevent regular commercial or other connexions, 
being formed between them and the Servians. The 
infection she dreads, is the liberal ideas of the sub¬ 
jects of Turkey, and through them the influence of 
Russia, which, in this quarter, is a propagandist! 

To all these causes, which are more than sufficient 
to account for the decline of German commerce, must 
be added this— that on her very frontiers she can be 
undersold in many articles by English goods, after 
supporting charges of sea and land carriage, to the 
amount of from fifteen to twenty-five per cent. This 
I have ascertained on the spot, by a careful calcula¬ 
tion of expenses. 

The difference between having goods to return in 
exchange for goods received, or effecting the return 
by gold or bills, is just the difference between single 
and double profits ; but besides this difference, the 
combined operation lightens the expenses on each, 
by dividing them ; therefore, a country having nothing 
to give in exchange for goods she receives, pays 
higher for these goods than if the same machinery 
had a double office, and profited by a counter opera¬ 
tion ; but Turkey not having as yet saleable produce 
to give in exchange, is obliged to pay in a coin de¬ 
pressed by legislative means. The penalties of death 
and excommunication maintain a false and nominal 
value; inferior coins are forced into circulation at 
higher denominations; foreign coin is excluded from 


160 COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY. 

the currency ; and when, after completing the circle 
currency generally describes, it returns to the coffers 
of the government, reduced to its real value, it 
is succeeded by a new coinage still further debased. 
Thus a sovereign, which might be coined (1831) 
into one hundred and ten piastres in gold, or twenty 
shillings, which might be coined into three hundred 
piastres of silver, if silver it can be called, can only 
be exchanged for seventy-five piastres. Commerce 
suffers not less from this serious loss than from the 
consequent uncertainty. No man can calculate on 
the state in which the exchange will be, when the 
orders he may be disposed under actual circumstances 
to give are transmitted to him; but this obstacle is 
independent of the commercial question; neither is it 
founded on maxims of the government or prejudices 
of the people; it is in direct opposition to all these: 
nor is there any rational motive for its continuance. 
Indeed, the evil is arrived at such a pitch, and foreign 
governments have become so sensible to it, that an 
alteration must speedily take place. 

Guarded round, as every state of Europe is, by 
custom-house regulations, the existence of entire 
freedom of commerce on any portion of its soil, is a 
point which, at the present moment, yields in urgency 
to no higher political consideration. While the u conti¬ 
nental system” prevailed, through Turkey, our mer¬ 
chandize found a passage — at the present moment 
our commerce may be said to be excluded from all 
the countries to which the Black Sea gives access. 
The coasts of Abazia and Georgia are hermetically 
sealed to us; the only good harbour to the north is 
shut to all merchantmen; our vessels are next to pro- 


COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY. 161 

hibited at the mouths of the Danube, and we have no 
depot within reach. 

Odessa, though a free port, is but a commercial 
goal, of which Russia holds the keys ; but when that 
city had ten versts around it included within the 
barriers, smuggling was conducted on such an ex¬ 
tensive scale, that large seizures of contraband goods, 
made even at Moscow, were traced to Odessa: the 
freedom of the port had only existed three years, 
when the government, indignant at the abuse of the 
privileges with which it had been exclusively en¬ 
dowed, revoked them. In so short a period the dis¬ 
tribution of contraband goods, in such large quanti¬ 
ties over so considerable an extent of country, proves 
to demonstration, that an immense traffic would be 
carried on with southern Russia, were it not for her 
custom-house regulations, and proves also the inability 
of her protective measures to exclude foreign commerce 
where a depot is at hand. No doubt the venality of 
the agents must have contributed more to its intro¬ 
duction, than the enterprise of the smuggler, consi¬ 
dering that the open frontier did not exceed eighteen 
or twenty versts. To the abolishment of the privi¬ 
leges of Odessa,* the merchants, however, opposed 


* When the merchants remonstrated against the subversion of the 
privileges of Odessa, they did not deny that extensive smuggling 
had taken place, and in proportion to the facility of obtaining goods, 
but they denied all participation in it. They urged that it was the 
government’s business to consider the risks of contraband trade, be¬ 
fore it allowed a depot to be formed on its coasts, and before it in¬ 
duced merchants to break up their establishments elsewhere. If any 
additional proof were required of the impracticability of Russia’s en¬ 
forcing her tariff, it would be found in the rigour adopted in 1823 

M 


162 COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY'. 

the most uncompromising and universal determination 
of abandoning the cherished city, and in 1823, a com¬ 
promise took place, and the barriers of the free ports 
were contracted to the extremities of the leading 
streets. Since that period, the duties have been 
doubled, and those of the north-east coast, raised by 
one sweeping measure, in January 1832, to 80 per 
cent. 

At that period Russia could not interfere with 
the commerce of Wallachia and Moldavia now she 
has wrested from Turkey the delta at the mouth of 
the Danube, so that every entrance to that river is 
within her grasp, and though she has not nominally 


towards Odessa, in the multiplication of barriers, guards, and forms, 
and the reduction of the limits of the free town to the narrowest 
bounds, while, at the same time, the inducements held out to smug¬ 
gling were increased by the augmentation of duties, and by the ex¬ 
cessive increase of prohibitions. Tn 1819, the prohibited articles 
were three; by the tariff of 1822, they were increased to two hundred 
and ninety-one ! in 1831, the imposts on the produce of our looms, 
which she admits, were doubled ; in 1832, in her tributary states be¬ 
tween the Black Sea and the Caspian, these imposts have been aug¬ 
mented between six arid seven fold ! It is to be remarked, that the 
contraband trade, which spread itself throughout the empire, (when 
it had a depot at hand,) had not the encouragement of these restric¬ 
tions and high duties. 

* The commerce of the provinces has hitherto been crippled in 
various ways; misgovernment and violence at home, the restrictions 
on the navigation of the Euxine, and the dangers created by these re¬ 
strictions ; and the mistaken policy of Constantinople, which, in these 
exclusively Christian provinces, deviated from her Mussulman rule 
and legislated for commerce, to render them the granaries of Con¬ 
stantinople. All exportation, (save of wool, yellow berries, and hare 
skins,) was forbidden, except to Constantinople. 


COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY. 163 

imposed restrictions or duties on vessels entering, no 
less than eight visits of captains of armed Russian 
vessels have been inflicted on vessels under the 
English flag, before reaching Galatz, with detention 
and presents to each. Compared, then, with 1822 and 
1823 at the present moment, the rewards offered to 
the smuggler are tripled, and her means of restric¬ 
tion not increased in her own country, and would be 
wholly ineffective in the provinces to the south, as in 
the countries to the east, if a depot of English wares 
were placed within theirreach. Such an establishment 
would indeed be most injurious to her projects for de¬ 
moralizing the Cossack, Tartar, Georgian, Circas¬ 
sian/ and Wallachian populations, and to her supre¬ 
macy on its present unhappy conditions in these re¬ 
gions. 

The imports of the provinces exceed at present 
<£"300,000, two thirds in cottons and colonial produce, 
which England does supply, or ought, by the cheap¬ 
ness and other advantages, to supply. These are im¬ 
ported by our colonial vessels (Ionian and Maltese) 
into Galatz, or overland from Leipsic. 

By an experiment lately made, a saving equal to that 
which I have stated in speaking of Roumelie, has been 
established by direct importation from England ; the 
same goods may be furnished 20 per cent, lower than 


* Some years ago, before the Russian influence had extended so 
far as at present, the cabinet of St. Petersburgh formed the project of 
anticipating its conquests by commercial connexions with these po¬ 
pulations : the experiment was conducted altogether a la Russe; a 
commercial commandant was named for New Russia, independent 
of the civil and military governors; having under his command a 
flotilla, independent of the naval commander on the station! 

M 2 


164 COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY. 

if purchased at Leipsic ; and the tallow and hides of 
the provinces have been sent to London, and promise 
at least to hold their ground against those of Russia. 
There, therefore, can be little doubt, that Russia, in 
pursuing her regular system, has two additional in¬ 
ducements to cripple the trade of the provinces. 
First, to prevent the introduction of articles which 
may be smuggled into her territory ; secondly, to 
arrest the exports of raw materials which compete 
with her own produce. 

But there is still behind a stronger motive for seal¬ 
ing up the Danube. That river is the natural artery 
of Europe : if its navigation were open, the territorial 
riches of Hungary would be poured by it into the 
general commercial circulation, and almost every arti¬ 
cle which is exported from Russia at present, exclu¬ 
sively, would descend that river, and its tributary 
streams, the Save, the Drave, the Theisse, the Dr in, 
the Morava, the Alt, and the Pruth, not only to the 
ruin of Russian export and transit commerce, but to 
the increase of the internal prosperity and political im¬ 
portance of the countries on her southern frontier.*' 

* These are principally Hungary and Galicia. The immense 
impulse that would be given to Hungary cannot be mistaken. The 
riches, the variety of her territory, are perhaps unrivalled; but 
placed in the centre of Europe, she is destitute of an outlet. Unde¬ 
veloped as her powers are at present. She was with difficulty re¬ 
strained from rising to support Poland. The prosperity of Hungary, 
then, would prove the most powerful bar to the extension, in that 
direction, of the Russian dominion. The progress of Galicia, being 
a Polish province, it is most essential to Russia to arrest. She can 
never bear the sight of a Sclavonic people flourishing under German 
dominion; and, as Poles, she may be supposed to entertain respect¬ 
ing them peculiar views. Yet, all things considered, Galicia may 


COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY. 165 

The necessity of Wallachia to Austria would become 
more absolute, and her commercial interests, with 
those of England, would combine with their political 
purpose and with Turkey, in making a firm and un¬ 
compromising stand against further encroachments ; 
there would be no disguising the visible and direct im¬ 
portance to the three empires, which every foot of ter¬ 
ritory would now in their quarter require. 

The navigation of the Danube has hitherto been 
impeded by rocks at Orsova, which proved an insu¬ 
perable obstacle to the enormous flat-bottomed 
barges ; but that these rocks present any insurmount¬ 
able difficulty, has been completely disproved by an 
experiment of the enterprising and patriotic Count 
Shahini, who built a vessel of considerable tonnage 
above Semlin, and navigated her in safety to Constan¬ 
tinople. The practical obstacle to the formation of a 
company for clearing, at this point, the bed of the 
river, has been the inefficiency of Hungarian law in 
protecting joint stock interests, and the Hungarians 
resist the slightest change in their institutions; but the 
rapidly increasing commercial enterprise and infor¬ 
mation of that country will soon remove these obsta¬ 
cle s. The merchants of Buda have already formed an 


be reckoned the most advanced province of all Poland: to the ex¬ 
uberant fertility of the southern and eastern provinces, it unites as 
forward a moral state as is to be found in the western. Though the 
nobles may sigh for the Russian dominion, the serf is in a far better 
condition than heretofore ; and German inlluence must improve the 
cultivation of the soil. The debouche of this province would be by 
the Pruth and the Danube. The present enlightened viceroy of 
Galicia, the arch-duke Ferdinand d’Este, has turned his mind par¬ 
ticularly to the opening of the Danube. 


166 COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OP TURKEY. 

association for the effecting of this grand work, and the 
navigation of the Danube is now regarded as the most 
important of national questions. A steam-boat has 
been established ; extensive coal measures, equal to 
the best in England, have been discovered and 
worked at a very trifling expense, on the banks of the 
river itself, at Orsova, and also at Edenburg; so that 
in all probability the navigation of this majestic 
stream will soon be extended to the Euxine. Under 
such circumstances, the possession of its mouth by 
Russia becomes a question of first-rate importance ; 
and it cannot be doubted, that she will employ every 
means to close it, if not to all commerce, at least to 
the commerce of the nation she very gratuitously as¬ 
sumes to be her rival.* 

Russia has excluded, by ukase, merchantmen from 
Sevastopol, the only good harbour of her possessions 
on the Euxine: her duties and regulations at Odessa 
arrest commercial enterprise and communication. 
Commerce will soon be excluded from the mouths of 
the Danube. How can Austrian and English com¬ 
merce, which in this case have one object, be brought 
to break through the Russian system? How can 
Austrian produce force its way out? How can En¬ 
glish manufactures find their way in ? 

The Hungarian merchants have been dreaming 
(for I am afraid to use a more positive term) of 
re-opening the ancient mouth of the Danube from 


* Russia’s condescension to republican America proves, that next 
to arresting all commercial connexion between the countries she has 
marked for her own, and other nations, she has at heart the substitu¬ 
tion of any other commerce to that of England. 


COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY. 167 

Rissovata, to Kustendge on the Black Sea, where a 
cut of less than thirty miles would save a circumna¬ 
vigation of above two hundred and fifty, as may be 
seen from the annexed plan, would avoid the Rus¬ 
sian posts and gun-boats, and the batteries ofBrailow 
and Ismail, would shorten by nearly one hundred and 
fifty miles the subsequent voyage to Constantinople, 
and become in proportion to its length the most im¬ 
portant canal in the world. 

It is chiefly for the transport of merchandise 
coming from or going to the Leipsic fairs, that 
steam navigation has been worth establishing as far 
as Belgrade; but if the difficulties at Orsova were 
removed by this river andjby steam, the whole of the 
East would communicate with the German fairs. The 
Persian, the Anatolian, the African merchandise, if 
even not allowed to pass the mouths of the river, and 
until a canal sooner or later unites the Danube and 
the Euxine, would follow the stream to the point 
nearest Enos, Rodosto, and Constantinople, that is, 
to Nicopoli, at the confluence of the Alt, near which 
point two of the largest fairs are now established; 
but if English wares can penetrate in sufficient abund¬ 
ance into the provinces—and that they will so pene¬ 
trate there can be little doubt—their route will be 
through this same place; it has local importance 
enough to attract speculation, it is in the immediate 
vicinity of Ternova and Semendria, large and indus¬ 
trious Bulgarian towns ; it is at four or five days’ dis¬ 
tance only from Philipopolis, by the easiest passage of 
the Balcan, in the centre of Wallachia and Bulgaria, 
on the division of the road from Constantinople to 
Jassy and to Hermanstadt; and when the course of 


168 COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY. 

the Danube is cleared, it will, it must become the 
central point of union, and of the meeting of German 
and English commerce, which are not only allied by 
the hostility of Russia, but which are so by direct im¬ 
pulse of their natural energies, and also by the dif¬ 
ference of the branches in which they excel. It would 
indeed be folly in us to impede the sale of our cottons 
in the vain endeavours to beat their woollens ; and in 
them, it would be equally absurd to jeopardy and 
curtail the export of their beautiful linens, glass, and 
porcelaine, corn, wine, and hides, by endeavouring 
to exclude us from a market for our muslins, tin, and 
cutlery. The world is yet wide enough for our in¬ 
dustry as well as our numbers, when such fields as 
the East are open to its conquests, is it not pitiable 
to see England and Austria—or Austria, at least 
—losing such vantage ground to both, by fruitless 
jealousy ? Here, in the vicinity of Ternova, is the geo¬ 
graphical point at which their interests meet, where 
they will adjust themselves, and where they ought to 
strengthen themselves for a joint and vigorous assault 
on the barriers of Russia, which may happily force 
that government no longer to abuse the vast power 
of doing good which she possesses. 

If we succeed in opening a direct commercial in¬ 
tercourse between England and Roumelie, depots of 
our merchandise will be formed at Serres, Adrianople, 
and Philipopolis. The provinces are at present 
principally supplied from the fair of Leipsic, as Eu¬ 
ropean Turkey is; the transfer of this demand from 
that market to England, for such articles as England 
can supply cheapest, will, in the provinces, depend 
on the same causes as in European Turkey—the su- 


COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY. 


169 


periority and cheapness of our wares, the facility of 
making returns, and the lowering of charges. If 
depots are established inf the above-mentioned cities, 
and if there they are to be procured from one-third 
to one-fifth cheaper than at Leipsic and Frankfort on 
Oder, the provinces will supply themselves of course 
from these depots in preference to Leipsic. Across 
the provinces to?the Russian frontier, the charges of 
transport would not exceed, at the very outside, one 
penny per pound, or two per cent, on the very hea¬ 
viest and coarsest goods. Their subsequent course 
will depend on circumstances : they ^are met by an 
extensive and ill-guarded frontier, a disorganized 
and corrupt custom-house establishment, excessive 
duties, numerous prohibitions, and vexatious regula¬ 
tions ; while the Jews, established in every important 
town, travelling from fair to fair, with perfect know¬ 
ledge of the country, and of the means of corruption, 
would form a ready organized body of smugglers. 

If it has been matter of congratulation at home 
that the facilities of smuggling into our own country 
applied Ci a wholesome corrective” to our commercial 
arbitrariness, it surely must be gratifying to perceive 
that the same corrective is in process of application 
to this colossal empire. We do not extend our com¬ 
mercial relations, or form depots by government pro¬ 
clamation, or for political views, but for private in¬ 
terests, over which the government has no authority. 
If, then, these connexions and depots are remotely 
the means of engaging Russia in an internal struggle, 
of weakening her authority at home, and her power 
abroad, or even, as it is not unlikely, of ultimately 
detaching from her her southern provincesthese 


J 70 


COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY. 


results, though foreseen by us, are still caused by her¬ 
self, and our more immediate and direct interests 
would, on the contrary, rejoice in her averting these 
consequences by a complete change of her commer¬ 
cial system. 

I have already stated, that England may undersell 
Austria on her Turkish frontier; what is more, she 
has done so. I have seen among the Illirian colonists, 
English cotton handkerchiefs, smuggled from Bel¬ 
grade. This might be a solitary instance; but then 
it must be recollected, that our goods are selling at a 
very high rate at present, and consequently at a 
great disadvantage, though the English manufacturer 
gains not a farthing by the additional charges, and 
loses the increased consumption these charges arrest. 
The cost price of our goods is daily diminishing, 
both by the improvement of our machinery and the 
gradual abolishment of fiscal restriction and legisla¬ 
tion, while the cost price of the articles with which 
we have to compete seems nearly stationary, and a 
disposition exists to increase, rather than to abolish, 
protective measures.^ Should the Prussian commer¬ 
cial system be adopted in Germany, prices would be 
increased at least to the amount of the additional 
charges imposed on English goods. The effects of 
this in the market of Turkey would be the immediate 
substitution of the English wares, daily decreasing 


* English goods, to reach Leipsic by the direct road from An¬ 
twerp, have to pass six double lines of custom-house cordons, and 
from Bremen or Hamburg eight. Well might Schiller, seated at 
Weimar, say, 

Der Konig sperrt die Bruchen und die Strassen. 


COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OP TURKEY. 


171 


in price, for German wares, which are already dearer 
and inferior, and which would be, under the assumed 
hypothesis, raised in price, or lowered in quality; 
but, if even one Glasgow handkerchief is worth 
smuggling into Hungary at present, what would be 
the result of the positive change in the position of 
the two nations, with the immense relative difference 
that would follow ? 

But, even should Austria give a formal consent to 
the Prussian system, it can never for a moment be 
supposed that she will join heartily in that scheme. 
When obliged to conform to the mandates of Na¬ 
poleon, she winked at the introduction of English 
and colonial goods along her southern and eastern 
frontiers. Even sea-coasts are difficult enough to 
guard, but what possibility is there of guarding an 
inland frontier, when the neighbouring countries know 
neither custom-house nor police regulations : the en- 
terprize is hopeless. Austria, by submitting to the 
Prussian system, will suffer prices to be raised gene¬ 
rally, and smuggling to be encouraged in every direc¬ 
tion, for the benefit of the silk and cotton manufac¬ 
tures of Prussia, which she can procure cheaper else¬ 
where, while her own iron, glass, porcelaine, &c. 
require no legislative countervailing encouragement, 
and command the market where her connexions ex¬ 
tend ; these markets being about to be reduced by 
the Prussian plan, which, by restricting importation, 
must re-act on exportation. So uncompromisingly 
are the interests of Austria opposed to the system, 
that nothing but political considerations could induce 
her to stand by Prussia. She sacrifices the vast, the 
material interests of her territory and position, to ap- 


172 


COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY, 


prehensions which are only not ridiculous by the 
enervating mode of defence she has adopted. Aus¬ 
tria, by her custom-house system, is ever kept in alarm 
and therefore in danger; a constant irritation prevails 
at home, and a constant apprehension of France and 
Russia from without; yet, no country in Europe 
could so easily pass from indirect to direct taxation; 
with her position and resources, what an empire might 
she not by this simple change become ! She would 
no longer have to fear France or revolution, and she 
would return with interest to Russia the secret shafts 
from which she has been so long suffering; in all 
these points her interests coincide with those of Eng¬ 
land, and of that coincidence we can force her to be¬ 
come sensible—we will drive her to co-operate with 
us, as a measure of self-defence, because, in the di¬ 
lemma in which the Prussian system places her, she 
must make a decided option, and take part either 
with us, or against us. That her election cannot, for 
any permanency, be against us, the commercial faci¬ 
lities of European Turkey are our guarantee. 

But it may be questioned how far we ought to 
sanction a traffic, which, by breaking through the 
precautionary regulations of quarantine, might ex¬ 
pose Europe to the devastations of the plague. To 
this I would answer, Europe, at this moment, is as 
much exposed as she possibly can be. Austria, in¬ 
deed, stops travellers and merchants for ten days; she 
exposes legitimately entered goods from ten to forty 
days; she opens and fumigates letters and dispatches, 
if for foreign governments; but though she imposes 
such regulations on travellers from a distance, who 
require to have their passports throughout regularly 


COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OP TURKEY. 


173 


countersigned, she cannot impose them on the border 
population. The very quarantine itself is an induce¬ 
ment to illegal intercourse. Every night do boats 
cross the Danube and the Save ; and if so clumsy an 
article as salt is habitually smuggled, what security 
is there against the introduction of the plague; or 
what possibility is there of enforcing the exclusion of 
cottons or other goods, when the decrease of their 
price in Roumelie, or their increase of price in Hun¬ 
gary, or both these causes united, offer larger profits 
for smuggling these portable commodities ? The bor¬ 
ders of Hungary cannot possibly be guarded against 
foreign goods, if these are to be obtained at a low- 
price in Turkey, there is no possibility of guarding 
the extensive frontier to which the organization of the 
Austrian Douanes does not extend—the terminal 
rivers and mountains of Sclavonia, Hungary, Tran¬ 
sylvania, and Bucovina. Such is the freedom of the 
Hungarians’ internal locomotion, that unless, on cross¬ 
ing the frontier, or on entering a fortified town, they 
can wander about without a passport. I have tra¬ 
versed that country with bauer or peasant horses, 
instead of post-horses, avoiding the public roads, on 
which peasant horses are not suffered to transport 
travellers, yet saved both time and money. Entering 
a village in the middle of the night, the crack of the 
driver’s whip would waken half-a-dozen peasants, 
who would rush out offering their teams. No effi¬ 
ciency of the custom-house agents could control such 
a people under the present system ; and a change of 
system, to render its efficiency greater, would bring 
Hungary into a state of insurrection. Even at present 
they question the legality of the custom-house regu- 


174 COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY. 

lations, consider them partially unjust to Hungary, 
and innovations on their ancient and guaranteed 
institutions. 

It would require greater local and commercial in¬ 
formation than mine to point out all the importance of 
European Turkey; but I think even what I have said 
will show what political power and commercial ad¬ 
vantages we may draw from her free trade system, 
which gives us not only an open and direct door to 
her own territories, and to eastern countries, but 
also a back entry, though an unceremonious one, to 
Europe itself. How important is it not only to support, 
but to renovate and strengthen this power: and, 
again, what more advantageous ally can we find for 
our diplomatic exertions than commerce itself? Let 
extensive depots of English wares be established on 
the Danube and at Trebizonde, and Turkey will find 
in them better support than in fleets or armies. 


175 


CHAPTER IX. 


The quantity and the quality of our imports from 
Turkey have greatly depended on our own duties. 
On raw materials the duty has already been reduced ; 
silk comes in at a nominal duty, wool and cotton at a 
low one; the excessive duties upon drugs have been 
somewhat reduced, not to benefit commerce, but to 
prevent adulteration ; and there, perhaps, could be 
little objection to a great reduction in the duties on 
ingredients for dyeing and tanning, with other raw 
materials, which are at present not imported at all, or, 
comparatively speaking, in small quantities : shumac, 
for instance, galls, valonea, fustic, madder,^ yellow 


* The Turkish madder, notwithstanding the absence of all care 
in its preparation, even at present divides our consumption with 
that of Germany, where it is treated with the utmost care, and 
whence it is sent, not in bulky and soiled roots, but prepared in 
cases. It is evident that a little care, added to the advantages of 
Turkey’s climate, and of a sun that precludes the injurious effects of 
kiln drying, would improve the quality of the exported Turkish 
madder, and probably improve our dye. It is well known, that 
from the eastern shores of the Adriatic Gulph, to the western shores 
of the Yellow Sea, the inferiority of our red to the eastern red is an 
obstacle to the sale of our ginghams and coloured cottons. 


176 


COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY. 


berries, &c.* A reduction of duties on these articles 
would naturally lead to attention in the cultivation 
and collection, would open for us a new market, 
lower the price, and improve the quality.f 

Turkey’s mineral resources are enormous, and are 
immediately available; that is to say, when the 
finance bureau and the system of farmers and pashas 
is abolished. The sultan has for some time been 
turning his attention to this subject; J but this, like 

* The Persian are esteemed, I believe, two hundred per cent, in 
the market above those of Turkey, yet the Turkish yellow is as 
brilliant as the Persian. I have heard the dyers at Tournovo de¬ 
clare, that their own was surpassed by no other; but it was not the 
berries which grew wild on the mountains, and are sold under the 
name of Turkish, that they used ; but berries gathered from plants 
cultivated by themselves. Yellow and red are the colours in which we 
generally fail: indeed certain stuffs for the East have to be sent across 
France to Zuric, for the purpose of being dyed these two colours. 

f Compared with other duties, the imports on these articles are 
very low. It is inconceivable how, for the miserable revenue they 
give, we ever should have subjected these essential ingredients to 
any tax whatever; but however trifling such sums as Is. 6d. per 
cwt. may look in the custom-house books, they are not so trifling 
when calculated as an ad valorem duty, to which our custom-house 
agents have so great an aversion; and when the ad valorem duty is 
calculated on the price in bond, or on the cost price, then these 
small sums swell in consideration. By this estimation, galls, valonea, 
and madder, pay ten per cent., shumac twelve, and yellow berries 
forty. I have seen these berries selling in the interior at 5s. the 
cwt., and they are charged the same duty as the Persian, which 
sells here for 41. 

% The sultan at one time took a personal interest in the 
working of the mines. 1 visited, at his desire, the supposed coal 
measures of Thrace, (Lignite,) which was anxiously hoped would be 
available for the steam engines. In consequence of his attention to 
the subject, and to excite his curiosity still further, I presented to 
him a little set of specimens of the rocks, &c. of Thrace. Some of 


COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY. 177 

his agricultural and manufacturing schemes, have 
hitherto been sacrificed to the interests or caprice of 
favourites. There were formerly eighty-two mines 
worked ; at present, I believe, that those of Gumush 
Hane, near Trebizonde, and of Ergani and Geopan, 
in the pashalic of Diarbekir, are alone in lingering 
activity. In modern Turkey, the riches of the hid¬ 
den veins have been as fatal to the cultivation of the 
soil as under Pytheas or Croesus, so that the neigh¬ 
bourhood of most of the richest mines have been con¬ 
verted into wildernesses. 

The copper mines of Cune, whose produce receives 
the designation of Tocat, Trebizonde, and Diarbekir, 
from the places where it is wrought, or where it re¬ 
ceives a second smelting, and whence it is exported 
to Persia, to India, or shipped for Constantinople, 
the shores of the Black Sea, &c., is perhaps the 
richest copper mine in the world; the hills seem one 
mass of carbonate of copper. The administration too 
is better than that of the other mines, having long- 
been in the hands of Armenians, who allow pri¬ 
vate speculators to extract and smelt the ore, fixing 
the price at which it is taken, so that if the price 
is not remunerating, of course the speculation is not 

his attendants deeming- such vulgar looking stones unworthy of the 
august presence, threw them away ; but the sultan sent diligently to 
have the lost specimens replaced; orders were sent to all the mines, 
to have specimens forwarded to Constantinople; and on leaving that 
city in 1830, it was promised me faithfully, by the then favourite, 
that specimens should be sent for analysis to England. As may 
be expected, 1 have never heard of them since ; for whatever may 
be the disposition of the sultan himself, little can be expected with 
such atours. 


N 


178 


COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY, 


undertaken. The late Mr. Escalon, than whose name 
there is no higher authority on eastern commerce, 
calculated the yearly produce, twenty years ago, 
at nearly one-third of the produce and importation 
of England,'^ and his estimate was not deemed ex¬ 
aggerated by the secretary of the Armenian farmers. 
By Belon’s account of the mines of Calcidicy, their 
produce in the sixteenth century must have been 
between one and two millions of ducats. But the 
whole country is full of metallic riches, as the geo¬ 
logical structure of European Turkey at least clearly 
indicates The iron of Simacove is perhaps inferior 
to no iron in the world, and is even at present ex¬ 
tracted in large quantities. Two very pretty pieces 
of brass ordnance in the arsenal of Vienna were cast 
by Czerni George, during his precarious and guerrilla 
warfare, from copper ore in Servia, which was smelted 
by a German, miner he had kidnapped during the 
night. 

In raw materials an improvement in the resources 
of Turkey offers to us the most brilliant prospects. 
A considerable quantity of the finer wool of upper 


Okes. 

* Consumed in the Arsenal of Constantinople . 800,000 

Exported from Trebizonde to Varna . 200,000 

-to Russia . 200,000 

Commerce of Constantinople and Smyrna . 120,000 

-by Aleppo and Diarbekir to Syria . 100,000 

Refined at Diarbekir, by Bussora, for India, 

China, &c. .... 600,000 

Consumption in Asia Minor and Persia . 1,000,000 


Okes 3,020,000 


At 40 okes to the cwt. 3,775 tons. 






COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OP TURKEY. 


179 


Dalmatia passes into Austria, and is mixed with that 
of Saxony; and the same breed of sheep pastures 
over the mountains of Roumelie ; their mode of life, 
constant exposure to the air, repeated crossing, and 
migrations, have maintained the quality of the fleece, 
though the carcass has suffered ; but the complete 
carelessness in shearing, and the filthiness of the wool, 
discredit it far below its real value. 

I have only to quote Egypt, to show what may be 
done with respect to cotton. The sea-island seed was 
introduced in 1818 or 1819, and Egyptian cotton* 
now fetches the second price in the English market. 
Egypt formerly imported cotton from Thessaly and 
Macedonia, countries which have ever been celebrated 
for their aptitude to this produce, and where immense 
tracts of rich and irrigable land lie unemployed, and 
which may be supposed even more favourable than 
Egypt to its culture. Egyptian flax has beaten that 
of Russia in the markets of Italy, and sells at a higher 
price. 

The exportation of silk to this country has hitherto 
been considerable; but being wound in the coarsest 
manner, and in long hanks, it has only been used for 
heavy goods. I am not aware of the different va¬ 
rieties of worms that exist in Turkey—such informa¬ 
tion is with difficulty obtained; but I have seen and 
examined worms, which appeared to me to differ in 
nothing from the large common worm of France. 1 
have seen others smaller, which struck me as being 
the small species so much esteemed by Dandolo ; 
but 1 could obtain no accurate information on the 

* The exports were, in 1821, 60 bags, in 1822, 50,000, in 1823, 
120,000, and in 1824, 140,000. 

N 2 


180 COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY. 

relative consumption of leaves and production of silk. 
However, both from the examination by manufacturers 
of specimens in this country, and the opinion of 
French growers and Italian reelers, I have little hesi¬ 
tation in saying that the quality of the silk of Turkey 
generally, and of Roumelie, (which is only reckoned 
second or third rate,) is fully equal to the finest of 
Piedmont or of the mountainous parts of France. 
The temperature and exposure is very similar to that 
of the best silk countries of the north of Italy; but 
there are no snow-crowned Alps, to send late chills 
to retard the vegetation of the mulberries, or even to 
blight them. The mulberry of Turkey is that which 
experience has taught France to prefer- the wild 
white mulberry. 

Even in Europe the injurious effect on silk of sepa¬ 
rating the interests of grower and reeler, have been 
abundantly felt. In India the Company’s monopoly, 
had it been of silk, would perhaps have been com¬ 
paratively but of little injury, compared with its 
monopoly of cocoons; so that, though the silk was 
reeled certainly on a far superior plan to that which 
the Hindoos employed, the result has been the de¬ 
teriorating of the silk of that country from the ancient 
standard, and the apparently ungrounded conviction 
on the minds of some of the Company’s highest and 
oldest servants, that its staple is inferior to that of 
Italy. In Turkey the peasant has hitherto reeled his 
silk in the rude manner of the country ; but several 
hundred Piedmontese reeling machines have been 
established by Italians at Salonica, and by this time 
probably some thousand reelers have been instructed. 
There is little or no difficulty in learning, and the 


COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY. 


181 


advance of price must infallibly spread the method 
throughout a country where the people are at once so 
intelligent and have so clear a perception of profit. 
The expense of the machines is small; the method in 
no ways differs from their own, save in additional 
care; the diameter of the reel is smaller—the water 
is allowed to change itself more freely, and therefore 
requires more fuel; but less heat is lost—the tem¬ 
perature requires more attention, so that the resinous 
matter may be softened, but not that the silk become 
brittle; the threads have to be twisted round and 
round each other in passing out of the caldron, so 
that the fibres, before the resinous matter cools, may 
receive a rounded and compact form, and there is 
more refuse. In recompense for this very trifling 
additional labour, in 1830 the silk reeled in this way 
sold at Salonique for 110 piastres per oke, whilst 
the other sold at 60 piastres, about six shillings, 
per lb. If the silk thus reeled has not yet become 
an article of importance in commerce, it is not cer¬ 
tainly from the inferiority of the quality, but from the 
political circumstances of the country. 

In this branch of industry, which may one day 
rival or surpass the prosperity of its junior, cotton, 
the reduction of the high price of the raw material is 
of the most urgent necessity, not less for the removal 
of actual distress than for the realizing of the prospects 
it holds out. It is the capabilities of Turkey of 
supplying that raw 7 material at so low a price, and 
of so excellent a quality, that gives to Turkish 
commerce, as far as regards the supply of England, 
its chief importance. 

As the manufacture of silk goes on increasing, if 


182 COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY. 

the demand for the raw material continues to anti¬ 
cipate the supply, the price will be maintained at a 
much higher rate, than if, in the same progression, 
the abundance of the supply had facilitated the manu¬ 
facture. While the debouches of this our new ex¬ 
port extend to almost every mart of the world, the 
supply on which we depend is at present very 
limited. The silk of Turkey, from the mode of 
reeling, has hitherto been unavailable for the more 
important branches of the manufacture ; her improved 
produce may therefore be considered a new article ; 
and in consequence of the reduction of price* of this 
new supply, the price of silk will be everywhere 
lowered. 

Struggling, as England and France now are, for 
supremacy in this branch of manufacture, we cannot 
be indifferent to the fact, that in three years France 
will have doubled her supply ;-j* while that of Italy, 
on which we at present almost entirely depend for the 
finer qualities, increases but at a very slow rate. 
The fall in the price will probably be confined to 
the limits of France, and made available to the sole 
benefits of her own manufactures ; but if she main¬ 
tains her exclusive system, while we can raise up a 
new source of supply in Turkey, the additional in¬ 
terests involved in the growing of mulberries in 
France will, on each reduction of the price of silk 


* The cost price of silk has generally been considered far below 
its market value. 1 have endeavoured to make a calculation of its 
cost price in Turkey. See Appendix. 

f It was calculated that in 1835 the quantity of silk would be 
doubled by the coming to maturity of the mulberry trees planted in 
the ten or fifteen preceding years. 


COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY. 183 

abroad, call for restrictions on the importations into 
France. The advantage of price which would have 
belonged exclusively to France, will not only be 
lost to her, but gained exclusively to England, unless 
France chooses to sacrifice her wretched anti-com¬ 
mercial system, which paralyses the commerce of 
Europe, by rendering almost impervious to its in¬ 
fluence the country which naturally would be its focus. 

It is not by the present exportation that the produce 
of Turkey can be ascertained ; far less the quantity 
rendered disposable by the substitution of our cottons, 
and prospectively of our silks, for their home and 
domestic manufacture. As a return for our wares, 
they must principally direct their attention to this 
object. It has been the resource of the wretched 
peasantry during the last twelve years of anarchy. It 
required no sowing or reaping in the field—no cattle, 
implements, or seed. When the silk was obtained, it 
was easily transported, easily secreted, ran few risks, 
and was always saleable. u Silk,” the peasants used 
to say, “ has been yellow gold to us.” The home 
consumption used formerly to be immense : there was 
no individual who did not wear some article of silk; 
in the furniture of the poorest peasant, the yellow 
threads of their coarse woollen carpets would be of 
silk, to give them brilliancy; the embroidery of men’s 
and women’s dresses, belts of the peasantry, the inner 
garments, and partly the shirting of the whole popu¬ 
lation, above the condition of the labourer, were of 
silk. Taste has now changed; cloths, shaloons, and 
every variety of cottons, will supplant silks, until we 
can supply them with improved and cheapened silk, 
and mixed manufactures adapted to their taste. 


184 


COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY. 


During the last twelve years the mulberry trees have 
suffered much, but they are recovering; the villages 
have been ruined, so that the peasant is often obliged 
to lay up his winter store, to lodge his family, and 
accommodate some of his most favoured cattle in 
what was his former granary ; they have not had, 
therefore, space necessary for rearing silk-worms. 
But a few months tranquillity have a most miraculous 
effect in Turkey. Laying all these considerations to¬ 
gether, I think we may fairly anticipate a no less 
important supply of raw materials from Turkey than 
a demand for our manufactured goods. Even in the 
present state of transition of the silk trade, our silks 
have commenced forcing their way even beyond the 
eastern limits of Turkey. No words or arguments 
of mine can add weight to these considerations. 
In cotton, silk, and hardware, our goods undersell 
the domestic manufacture—can bear the charges of 
transport, and yet command every native market; 
and throughout these extended regions no restrictions 
force men to prefer the bad article to the good, or the 
clear to the cheap. 

Active traffic with Turkey, and the carrying on of 
that traffic by native merchants, or by Europeans ac¬ 
quainted with the country, instead of the medium 
which has been so long employed, of commission- 
houses, brokers, and anticipating monopolisers of the 
harvests and produce, would not only increase the 
export of these articles which are in present demand, 
but create new demands, by giving value to objects 
comparatively useless, or by converting them to new 
purposes.* 

* The mohair, the manufacture of which, in the East itself, seems 


COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY. 


185 


Our factories formerly resembled military establish¬ 
ments in a hostile country, where the national banner 
waved in proud defiance to the local authorities, and 
the consul considered himself the depository of the 
power of his synonyme of Rome. The European 
merchant possessed exclusive privileges which ren¬ 
dered him obnoxious to the native merchant; but he 
was denied the rights of citizenship ; he could hold no 
lands, aspire to no office; he had therefore no stake 
or interest in the country, and moreover he had no 
acquaintance with the traffic by which he lived, for 
his transactions were carried on exclusively through 
the medium of native brokers and agents. 

The dissolution of the company has changed this 
system. Our policy is now directed to the extension 
of our commerce, not to the favouring of our mer¬ 
chants. The intermediaries of our traffic must be 
men acquainted with the language and with the coun¬ 
try, possessing information and connexion, travelling 
from fair to fair, supplying themselves, if possible, 
directly from England, and, above all, emancipated 
from the intermeddling of consuls, and from the ne¬ 
cessity of their invidious protection. 

It cannot be advantageous for English vessels to go 


to have been one of the most important branches of the commerce of 
Venice, has hitherto been, comparatively speaking, an insignificant 
one to us ; the reason was, the inequality of the bales of yarn; 
because the producer and consumer were separated by so many 
intermediaries, that not only care and labour were not compensated 
by an additional price, but the producer in Anatoly had probably 
never the means of knowing what the manufacturer in England re¬ 
quired. Now that it is imported unspun, its long-lost value may 
reappear. 


186 COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY. 

picking up cargoes at out-ports, or scattering their 
shipments along the coasts; so that the coast or ca¬ 
ravan trade, as it is called, must devolve upon the 
Greeks. The demand, the supply, and interchange of 
commodities at the numerous scales of this extensive 
sea coast, though exceedingly great, is too minutely 
subdivided for the hire and tonnage of our ships, 
and the capacity and temper of our masters and su¬ 
percargoes : but the light Greek vessels, whose ship’s 
company may be considered an association of traders,* 
barter our manufactures and colonial produce for 
the varied goods of the country, carry to the entre- 


* That eminently active mercantile spirit which so much surprises 
us in nations deprived of all the advantages and facilities that Eu¬ 
ropean nations possess, seems ever combined with a minute subdi¬ 
vision of profit and loss, by which the interest of each individual 
restricted in amount is extended to the whole operation. This has 
inspired the Greeks with their truly admirable mercantile genius, 
they applied to commerce the rule they had adopted of self-govern¬ 
ment. The whale men of Nantucket, the most daring adventurers 
that the history of commercial navigation records, are organized in 
precisely the same manner as the Hydriots. The principle of self- 
government must have been carried afloat by the adventurers of the 
commercial republics and states, for we find the merchants on board 
electing their consul, and separating the judiciary functions from the 
office of captain—a refinement of which I have met no second ex¬ 
ample. The Genoese owners give their sailors an interest in the 
vessels, so that not only are wages reduced, habits of morality 
engendered, but vessels so navigated are insured for one half the 
ordinary premium, or even less, and the loss by avarie, (particular 
average) which falls so heavy on insurers of the Mediterranean, is 
never incurred by more than one in the hundred of these vessels. 
But the Chinese carry the subdivision farthest. If 150 individuals 
are owners of a junk, each knows the particular part that is his 
property—the vessel is partitioned off’, and each does what he likes 
with his own co-partment. 


COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY. 


187 


pots what is required for our market, and spread the 
remainder according to the demand. By their acute¬ 
ness, activity, and strong competition, charges are 
lowered, and commerce is pushed and multiplied. 

The entire prospects of our Turkey trade rest, in 
fact, on these two points, the emancipation of com¬ 
merce from the Levant Company, and the emancipa¬ 
tion of Greece from the Turkish sway. The Greeks, 
on sea and on land, will be busily employed in spread¬ 
ing our wares over Turkey, and the shores of Ihe 
Levant and Black Sea; they will retain all the inimi¬ 
table qualities they before possessed, their mercan¬ 
tile connexion, frugal habits, laborious industry, and 
local knowledge; the elevation of their political cha¬ 
racter will relieve them from the oppression they 
formerly suffered, will give them credit and conside¬ 
ration among Europeans, and, joined to these advan¬ 
tages, the connexions which they are hourly increasing 
and consolidating in Europe, will supply the link so 
long wanting between the commerce of the eastern 
and western worlds. 

It would be indeed miraculous, if, under so wretched 
an administration as that of Turkey, her system of 
free trade had been preserved in its original purity. 
Direct and indirect abuses have grown upon it, but 
it is rather their fewness than their number that is 
surprising. First, there is the depreciation of the 
currency, or rather the monopoly of the precious 
metals, into which the Turkish currency system re¬ 
solves itself. Secondly, the illegal influence of the 
local governments, or of persons connected with them, 
on the markets for the territorial produce, which I 
have endeavoured to explain when treating of the sub- 


188 COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OP TURKEY. 

ject it more particularly regards—the administration 
of the provinces ; and, thirdly, increased duties and 
monopolies introduced of late years. 

The Turks maintain, that if you impose duties on 
commerce you should lay them equally, as a principle 
of justice, on exports and imports ; indeed, that a state 
should rather burden the exports than the imports, to 
make the pressure fall on the foreign consumer: 
so that imposts might be levied on any particular ar¬ 
ticle in proportion to the advantages the country pos¬ 
sessed in producing it. The profit would thus be drawn 
from territorial or local advantages, without burden¬ 
ing the industry of the natives, or restricting foreign 
commerce, were the duty graduated so as to allow 
the taxed article to command the foreign market, the 
nation making a clear gain in the ordinary way of 
mercantile profit. These were the principles on which 
the Turkish government acted, or to say more truly, 
were the pretended principles put forward in sup¬ 
port of the late essays at monopolizing silk and opium. 
It was further argued, that the foreign merchant, the 
Jew, and Greek broker, the Armenian saraf, the 
Turkish aga, taking advantage of the necessity of 
the cultivator, monopolized the produce of the country 
at a ruinous rate for the peasant, and making large 
profits themselves, vilified the produce of Turkey in 
foreign markets. Why, said the advocates of the 
monopoly, should we allow these locusts to eat up the 
verdure of the land, make great gains for small ser¬ 
vice, lower the value of our produce, and disable the 
raya from paying his contribution to government? 
These arguments, which I am inclined to consider 
perfectly sound, as far as they went, unfortunately led 


COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY. 189 

to decisions which overstepped the conclusions they 
warranted, and the remedies they suggested: a new 
class of evils, succeeded, or rather aggravated, those 
already complained of, with this unhappy difference, 
that the government now was interested in the abuse. 
These articles were henceforward to be sold by the 
peasant only to government agents, at a fixed low 
price, and government was to make the best of the 
market, hoping thereby to realize all the profit of the 
intermediaries, and to elevate the price of the com¬ 
modities ; but under the wretched administration of 
Turkey, there was no chance of inflicting this ruinous 
system on the country. It had required all the material 
power, the matured organization and intellectual su¬ 
periority of England, to inflict a similar one on the 
Hindoo, and all the individual energy of the despo¬ 
tism of Mohamet Ali to introduce the like, it is to be 
hoped only for a season, into Egypt. The result 
of these measures, without entering into their opera¬ 
tion, has been disgust of the peasantry, clamour of 
the former intermediaries, remonstrances of the fo¬ 
reign merchants and their representatives, decline of 
commerce, and ultimately, though the effects still in 
part remain, the disgrace of the favourite, to whose 
advantage they had principally conduced. May this 
lesson not prove uninstructive ! 

When the monopoly of silk was abandoned, 
the government imposed a duty of nearly ten per 
cent, on exportation; but the want of custom-house 
cordons and officers, made it necessary for the sake 
of collection, to force all the silk to pass through 
ports where the custom-house was more efficiently 
organized, and more under the control of govern- 


1 DO COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY. 

ment. The resistance this measure will infallibly 
create, and the paralyzation of this branch of com¬ 
merce, must bring its repeal. 

But sincerely do I hope that the arguments used 
in advocating the monopoly will not be neglected in 
consequence of the failure of that measure, injudicious 
in itself, and totally inapplicable to Turkey—which is 
certainly not in a state to organize a custom-house 
system, or to add an army of smugglers to its other 
ills—and that a clear perception of the effects of the 
present system will lead the government rather to put 
an end to its abuses than to share in them. A go¬ 
vernment raising its revenue by direct taxation, has 
so all powerful an interest in the prosperity of the 
state—a despotic government is so completely above 
the influence of castes, or corporations, that it is to 
be presumed that when it experiences the practical 
evils of any measure, it will change its policy, now 
that the oligarchy, that so long interposed itself be¬ 
tween the interests of sovereign and nation, has been 
swept away; and that, time and circumstances per¬ 
mitting, an administration will be organized depen¬ 
dent on the sovereign, and representing his interests 
when exercising his authority. 

Thus it would appear that the obstacles which in 
Turkey oppose the improvement of her territorial 
resources, and the increase of her commerce, arise 
neither from system nor privilege, but from abuses, 
engendered by the anarchy of the country and the 
weakness of the government. These obstacles can 
only be removed by strengthening the hands of the 
government, by acquiring influence over its councils, 
and by exercising that influence judiciously. Turkey 


COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY. 


191 


is now daily in the schools of experimental adminis¬ 
tration—she is assuming a place at the council table 
of Europe: she places herself under the tutelage of 
England ; it is incumbent on England carefully to dis¬ 
tinguish the good from the evil dispositions of her 
charge, to encourage the first as sedulously as to 
repress the last,, and, above all, not to neglect example 
when enforcing precepts. This consideration leads 
me to contrast the reception we give her produce 
with the reception she gives ours. 

In Turkey the simplicity of commerce renders 
every interference perceptible to the senses of every 
person connected with it. There is nothing to prevent 
one and the same merchant from purchasing an assort¬ 
ment of German haberdashery at Leipsic, and carry¬ 
ing it to Tocat, in the centre of Asia Minor, there to 
exchange it for copper; he may exchange his copper 
for tombac at Shiraz ; his tombac for English lace 
and ginghams at Bombay; and with these he may 
embark for the Philippine Islands. The same indi¬ 
vidual, with a venture of Chinese ware, may arrive 
at Astrachan, and thence return with furs to Con¬ 
stantinople : mercantile journies such as this have 
been not uncommon ; and on this system all internal 
traffic is conducted. The result is, that each person 
engaged in it has a practical and precise acquaintance 
with all the wants and capacities of all the countries 
with which he traffics. There is nothing ever gave 
me so high an opinion of the commercial capacities of 
the eastern merchants, as seeing them open packages 
of European wares, and with the most astonishing 
rapidity and tact assort them in portable balesjfor 
mule or camel, according to the required proportions. 


192 


COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY. 


and the shades of taste of the different countries for 
which they were destined ; but this practical informa¬ 
tion makes them immediately perceive any inter¬ 
ference with traffic ; and above all, the interest of 
commerce is one and undivided, because the same 
individual being interested in the purchase, in the 
sale, and in the transport, the interminable compli¬ 
cations and struggling interests of Europe are at 
once swept away. While, therefore, the commerce of 
the East is a clear and intelligible object of inquiry 
and calculation, the commerce of Europe is quite the 
reverse; we cannot see or calculate either the evils 
we suffer, or the advantages we have ; and when le¬ 
gislation falls on these troubled waters, temptations 
and ignorance increase in exact proportion with the 
power of mischief. 

We argue, that if duties are only imposed for re¬ 
venue, commerce is free ; and that if an equal duty 
is imposed on the same produce, free competition is 
opened to all nations in our market. The conclusion 
thence drawn is, that nothing farther is desirable for 
the increase of our commercial prosperity, than re¬ 
lieving commerce from prohibitions and protecting 
and discriminating duties. As the interest of these 
pages, if they have any, depends entirely on the ex¬ 
position of a practicable system, and commercial ex¬ 
perience in all things the very reverse of our own, 

I cannot better show the wide discrepancy that exists 
between the free-trade notions of political economists 
and the practical free-trade of the East, than by 
conducting the merchant, whose perambulations 
through Asia we have been tracing, into England, and 
setting him to carry on his traffic here by the same 


COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY. 


193 


rule of substantial and palpable exchange of value 
for value. 

Suppose him, then, preparing for his journey to 
England: he looks over a list of goods in request in 
England, and fixes on silk ; he looks over some sam¬ 
ples from England, and their prices ; he sees that there 
is some reeled in the Piedmontese manner in Turkey, 
equal to silk bearing the highest price in England; 
he makes his venture in this. His silk warehoused 
in London, he inquires where the silk manufacturers 
are, and wishes to proceed thither to sell his goods; 
but he soon finds himself entangled in a web of rou¬ 
tine, habits, prejudices, conflicting interests, and in¬ 
terested misrepresentations : he is instructed in the 
mysteries of the subdivision of labour; he finds that 
brokers and speculators possess the threads of com¬ 
munication, and in a hundred ways thwart all his 
attempts at free agency; he is informed that no Tur¬ 
key silk, such as his, is esteemed in the market, that 
only the coarse has been in demand for ribbons, &c.; 
indeed, that instead of his silk fetching a higher price 
than the country-reeled, he would be very lucky if he 
got even that price. The poor distracted and alarmed 
man concludes a disadvantageous bargain^ He goes 
down to the manufacturing districts to select goods 
for the Turkey market. While making his assort¬ 
ments of cotton, for which every facility is afforded 
him, in which he is as much delighted by the intelli¬ 
gence and frankness of the manufacturers, as he was 
shocked with the selfishness of the brokers, he is na¬ 
turally led to speak of his unfortunate speculation in 
silk : he exhibits some specimens—the manufacturers 
are struck with them, admire them, declare them 


o 


194 COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY. 

equal to any thing from Italy; and on tracing the 
after-circulation of his own silk, he finds that, as 
Piedmontese, it had realized a high price. He now 
begins to doubt the advantages of the principle of 
division of labour in mercantile concerns, however 
applicable to manufactures, and wonders much how 
English industry can flourish under such a system. 
However, the purchases he has made in cottons bring 
him back to Turkey with an equal capital to that with 
which he left it. On the value, say £5000, he pays 
to the Turkish government as duty, (or for permission 
to dispose of his wares,) <£150; after all charges, he 
makes twenty, five per cent, or £1250, and determines 
to return to England again. He had seen tobacco of 
inferior quality selling at enormous prices; he deter¬ 
mines then to invest his original capital in tobacco, 
and to reserve his profits for expenses ; resolved this 
time not to abandon his profits to middle men, but to 
carry samples of his tobacco to the retail dealers, or 
to dispose of it at the public market, as in Turkey. 
He arrives in the docks with £5000 value: the same 
value of English goods had been charged in Turkey 
£150; he is now informed that he cannot dispose of 
his tobacco, unless he first pays £30^000 to the cus¬ 
toms. He has the mortification of seeing his tobacco 
bought from him at six-pence in bond, charged three 
shillings duty, and therefore costing the broker or spe¬ 
culator but three-shillings and six-pence, and selling 
in the shops of London at ten, twelve, and sixteen 
shillings. Is it to be expected that this man will spare 
our commercial system in comparing it with that of 
Turkey ? Can the Turkish government be expected 
to listen, even with patience, to our disinterested sug- 


COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY, 195 

gestions of moderation and amelioration, when, for 
equal value to be disposed of in English and Turkish 
markets, on the same terms, and with equal facilities, 
requires the employment of <£5,150 for the disposal of 
the English value, and £35,000 for the disposal of 
the Turkish. In other words, for £100 of English 
manufactures, Turkey exacts £3, and for £100 of 
Turkish produce, England exacts £600. This is 
not, it will be understood, the method any merchant 
would pursue, still it is the course that commerce 
has to follow. These obstacles, which render it im¬ 
possible for the same merchant to complete the ex¬ 
change as in Turkey, are of course overcome, but 
certainly at a considerable sacrifice. My object is 
merely to show in the strongest contrast the operation 
of the two systems.* 

It is not, therefore, the profoundness of instruction 
or science, but the simplicity of the question as it ap¬ 
pears before them, that will prevent the Turks, who 
look up to us for instruction on all other subjects, 
from imitating our example in this? What would 
Turkey be if this withering system w'ere added to her 
ills ? It requires centuries of antecedent error, and 
consequent prejudice, before men can be brought to 
debate the items of a tariff with the serious conviction 

* ] asked a tobacconist, “ Why his craft did not, when every 
body was petitioning- for the reduction of some particular duty, pe¬ 
tition for a reduction of the tax on tobacco ?” “We would rather 
petition for its permanency,” he answered me: “when some time 
ago a reduction of the duty was talked of, those engaged in the to¬ 
bacco trade were very much alarmed; for if the duty were much 
• reduced, the cost price of the article is so little, that any body with 
£10 capital would set up a shop. The profits would be reduced to 
nothing, and our capital would be unproductive.” 

O 2 


196 COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY. 

on their minds that they are balancing accounts be¬ 
tween two nations. When a Turk perceives that we 
impose six hundred per cent., while Turkey only im¬ 
poses three per cent., he thinks that he has no right 
to complain if we do not, since the first and great 
injury is inflicted on ourselves, in the augmented 
price of the merchandize to our own people; but this 
example will not induce him (unless from dishonest 
motives) to desire his government to retaliate on 
Turkey, the evil which the custom and excise system 
inflicts on England. They wish to buy the best ar¬ 
ticle at the cheapest rate, and they meet with con¬ 
tempt and ridicule all arguments opposed to this 
practical rule ; so much the reverse, that the more 
enlightened portion of the Turkish proprietors anxi¬ 
ously anticipate a vastly increased importation of 
manufactured goods; so that not only manufacturing- 
establishments may be broken up, and the hands and 
capital applied to agriculture, but that the peasantry 
may be enabled to purchase their necessaries at a 
sufficiently low rate, to turn their labour from manu¬ 
facturing them, to increasing their harvests and im¬ 
proving their produce; anticipating, on the one hand, 
amelioration of the articles of consumption, and on 
the other, increase of the means of purchase; both 
results equally conducing, in their opinion, to indi¬ 
vidual happiness and national wealth and prosperity. 

An example will, perhaps, best show the style of 
reasoning of Turks, and the degree of their lights on 
commercial subjects. After the subjugation of the 
Albanians, the grand vizir's attention jvas anxiously 
devoted to ameliorate the commercial relations of the 
country : the first and most important point was, the 


COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY. 


197 


establishment of one standard of currency ; for be¬ 
sides the monopoly of the mint, the provincial govern¬ 
ments were in the habit of speculating in coin, and 
of issuing their mandates to elevate or depress the 
currency, according to the season of paying their 
troops, or receiving contributions: the fixation of a 
common standard, even that of Constantinople, was 
an inestimable benefit. This, with security of com¬ 
munication and internal tranquillity, was all that com¬ 
merce required ; but with the idea which naturally 
predominates in a Turk's mind, at this moment how¬ 
ever suppressed, of the superiority of our institutions, 
and pressed by the necessities of his situation, bur¬ 
dens were laid in various ways on exchange, light 
taxes were converted into heavy duties, new taxes 
were imposed, licences were now to be purchased for 
the retail of wine and brandy, as formerly for gun¬ 
powder and snuff, and even a pair of slippers could 
not be purchased without a stamp and fee. I men¬ 
tion this to show that the freedom of traffic in Turkey 
does not proceed from theoretical views of the di¬ 
rectors of affairs, but from the resistance of the body 
of the people, originating in a clear perception of 
their own interests, felt and seen through no distort¬ 
ing medium. Therefore, whatever anxiety one must 
naturally feel for the course adopted by the Turkish 
administration at a moment so important to their fu¬ 
ture destinies, I do not think that indirect taxation 
is to be apprehended : it is too antithetical to the 
habits, the feelings, and the prejudices of the people : 
it may be enforced for a while by the respect which 
has hitherto been paid to taxation; but that respect 
will speedily vanish, and instead of the defrauder of 


198 


COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY. 


the revenue being the object of censure and contempt, 
the smuggler would become the hero of popular en¬ 
thusiasm, and would be put on a par with the cleft. 
The numerous creeks, and vast extent of iron-bound 
coasts, the proximity of Greece, the light mystico, and 
the frequent calms of these seas, render it next to im¬ 
possible to impose any duties that would give smug¬ 
gling a remunerating profit. Many of the Turks of 
property, indeed all of them, have capital invested in 
commerce, lent to Greeks, or lent to villages, which 
are only enabled to repay capital and interest by the 
disposal of their own produce, and the purchase of 
necessaries at the lowest rate: all these considerations 
militate not only against the policy, but also against 
the practicability of imposing on Turkey fiscal re¬ 
straints ; and, as a last resort, should the govern¬ 
ment, by its organized troops, endeavour to force this 
system on the nation, the inevitable consequence 
seems to me, the throwing off successively, by each 
province, the authority of the Porte, which at this 
moment holds its supremacy by no other lien than 
opinion. After all, the duties I allude to would be 
regarded as insignificant in Europe: the importance 
lies in the precedent. 

About the period to which I am referring, the 
commencement of 1832, I visited the equally neg¬ 
lected and important position of Durazzo. I found 
there, as governor, one of the most intelligent Turks, 
and one of the most amiable men, I have ever met 
with. 1 have known him both as a public and private 
man, and believe him to be thoroughly honest, which 
for a Turk in office may appear an impossibility. 
Indeed he was so disgusted with office, that he had 


COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY. 


1S9 


requested, and soon after obtained, permission to re¬ 
tire to bis own chiflicks. I have referred to these 
events only for the purpose of relating the substance 
of a conversation I had with this Turk on the com¬ 
merce of Durazzo. He had never heard of the splen¬ 
dour and importance of Dyracchium under the Romans 
or Venetians; he did not know that for a season 
the whole commerce of the eastern and western world 
had passed through its gates; but nevertheless he 
could appreciate the advantages the position offered 
for present and future traffic. “ If,” said he, “any 
thing could induce me to remain in a situation where 
my conscience and duty are ever at war, and to sup¬ 
port the infection of these marshes, it would be the 
certainty I feel of making Drus (Durazzo) one of the 
principal ports of Turkey. Along our western shore, 
which looks on Europe, we have not a single safe or 
convenient harbour; so that the peasantry, through 
all these districts, have to supply themselves from 
Monastir with goods, brought sometimes sixty days’ 
mule carriage, from Leipsic, Constantinople, and 
Salonica. Durazzo only requires a mole to be run 
out from the horn of the at present exposed bay, to 
give shelter to large vessels within, and afford them, 
at the same time, the immense advantage of a mole 
for lading, which no port in Turkey, save Constanti¬ 
nople, possesses. This place is, besides, the centre 
of all communication by land; and from twenty to 
thirty hours, in all directions, the roads are level, and 
might be easily rendered passable for waggons. I 
would undertake to drain the marshes, make three 
roads for that distance, and construct the mole, if I 
were allowed for five years to retain the customs of 


200 


COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY. 


the now unfrequented port, and the produce of the 
scarcely productive salt pans." 

“ But,” I observed, “ if your government pursues 
the course it has commenced to adopt respecting 
commerce, the mole, if built, would not be much fre¬ 
quented. By your treaties with us, three per cent, 
is all you have a right to exact for the entry of 
foreign merchandize; and in this very port you exact 
at present five per cent., at Valona seven and a half: 
you impose monopolies on various articles: wine, 
&c. is sold by licence. I hear of three piastres per 
oke on wool from Scutari.” “ V ery true!" said the 
bey ; “all that is consequent on the circumstances of 
the moment, which are truly perplexing. Last year 
you saw me despairing of the fate of Turkey, yet 
anxiously taking part in the public service : this year 
you see me hoping much, yet declining her service: 
the reason is, that then I despaired of the people 
having energy enough to rid themselves of the Alba¬ 
nians ; and as for the poor sultan, I knew he could 
do nothing for us. But now we have bridled the 
Albanians, I have no fear for the future prospects of 
Turkey, however bad the road may be at first. You 
speak of our being restricted to a duty of three per 
cent, on foreign merchandise: I say that that is rob¬ 
bery ; because our harbours are filled up, our moles 
ruined, for the support of which alone that per centage 
is claimed. It is the part of a wise government to 
favour and facilitate commerce by every possible 
means, as that alone gives value to our possessions, 
and turns our harvests into treasures; but if a 
government so wretched as ours has been, neither 
affords it a shelter from the storm, a landing place 


COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OP TURKEY. 201 

from the waves, nor a road across the country, it cer¬ 
tainly ought not, in addition, to burden it with charges, 
which are a profit of one, and a loss of nine.” 

There was a shipment at the time proceeding of 
most wretched tobacco, for the supply of the Austrian 
monopoly of Italy, which, as I have before mentioned, 
was furnished at the rate of rather more than one 
half-penny per pound. It is delivered damp, ill made 
up, and in the worst possible state ; it heats on the 
passage very often, and has then to be thrown over¬ 
board. I was expressing my surprise, that when the 
peasants were at the trouble of sowing, reaping, and 
transporting tobacco for so small a sum, they did not 
expend upon it the additional labour necessary for 
drying and packing it, which would more than double 
the value of the article. The bey answered, (and to 
this answer I beg particular attention,) “ The care 
and labour required to cultivate and prepare tobacco 
well are very great; and how can these wretched 
peasants expend that labour upon it, when they have 
to grind their corn, and manufacture their clothing, 
with the rudest machinery ? When they have plenty 
of land, they profit by seasonable rains, and make the 
best of their cattle by sowing a great deal; but want 
of subsequent care renders the very increase of quan¬ 
tity injurious to them.”—“ Would it not therefore be 
more advantageous for them to buy foreign manu¬ 
factured goods?”—“ To be sure it would, when they 
can get them cheap enough ; and that is precisely 
why the establishment of a mole for shipping here 
would bring so much advantage to the whole coun¬ 
try.”—“And would the trivial reduction of price 
which the traffic direct by Durazzo would effect, pro- 


202 COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY. 

dace such a difference to the peasant ?”—“ A feather 
turns the scale. A few paras more or less in the 
price of the pike will make the difference of pur¬ 
chasing or of manufacturing at home.” In fine, he 
was decidedly of opinion, that if England manufac¬ 
tured for the tastes of the people ; if her goods were 
supplied to the markets of Turkey, at the lowest 
charges, and by the directest channels; and if the 
Turkish government intelligently busied itself in re¬ 
pairing and constructing roads, so as to diminish 
inland charges, and facilitate the transport of the 
more, cumbersome returns, England would have the 
entire supplying of Turkey, and Turkey would be 
benefited as much as if one fourth were added to her 
population. 

\(bot hIJ.iio /;! y/wf > ! fij orro to joubnoo 

ul (fonlw oi 


203 


CHAPTER X. 


The consular system is the last but not the least 
important part of this inquiry ; but this is a question 
enveloped with perplexities which are perfectly ine¬ 
vitable where respected individuals fill invidious 
offices, where the censure applied to the system may 
attach to the person, or when the censure which the 
conduct of one man has raised, may fall on the body 
to which he belongs. 

I will as much as possible relieve myself from the 
difficulties of forming, and the still greater of express¬ 
ing, an opinion on the subject, by stating, that from 
my own observation, I know of no blame attaching to 
any portion of the institution: I have never heard a 
European merchant complain of positive injury or in¬ 
justice inflicted on him. As a traveller, I have 
scarcely ever arrived in a scale where a consul, of 
whatever nation, resided, without owing him obliga¬ 
tions of every description. In such places I have seen 
with their eyes—the information I have obtained has 
been through them. All the assistance a stranger re¬ 
quires, I have received at their hands. I was, in 
fact, dependent on them; because, where a consul re- 


204 COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY. 

sided, I never have been on confidential terms with 
Turks. The remarks I have to make on the subject 
are, therefore, not the result of personal observation 
of the working of the present system, but of an exa¬ 
mination of the objects and conditions of the institu¬ 
tion itself, and of the opinion the Turks entertain re¬ 
specting it. Indeed my object throughout, is as much 
to explain the opinions of the Turks, as their maxims 
and practice of commercial policy and internal admi¬ 
nistration. 

Consuls in Turkey and in Europe are placed in ex¬ 
tremely different positions; in the west, they are of 
the utmost assistance to merchants, without the possi¬ 
bility of their being injurious or obnoxious either to 
them or to the local authorities ; they act as guides 
and instructors in the various intricacies and difficul¬ 
ties which the merchant, master, supercargo, &c., has 
to encounter; they act as counsel if he is cited be¬ 
fore the local tribunals; as arbitrators in questions 
arising between master and merchants of his nation ; 
and above all, they have to see that a ship's papers 
are in order, that she may not incur risk of seizure or 
detention, that no contraband goods are taken on 
board or landed, “ in order to prevent the consequent 
hazard of confiscation or detention of ships, and im¬ 
prisonment of the masters and mariners.” * In the dis¬ 
charge of all these important duties, the consul is 
guided and bound down both by law and routine ; he 
is continually under the eye of men as well or better 

* Beavves Lex Merc. vol. ii. p. 32, which see, with Chitty on 
Commercial Law; for consular duties not applicable to a state of com¬ 
merce emancipated from customs and legislation. 


COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY: 205 

informed on mercantile law and practice than himself; 
and any neglect of so much of his duty as would en¬ 
tail loss on any person by its omission, any positive 
violence or wrong offered to the country where he 
resides, would be immediately followed by dismissal. 
But these duties almost entirely vanish under a sys¬ 
tem of free trade,(in the Turkish sense.) There is no¬ 
thing to fear from neglect of formalities; there is 
neither detention, imprisonment, loss, or confiscation, 
to be apprehended from attempts at smuggling, or 
the unwitting introduction of contraband articles. 
The consul’s duties are confined to the administering 
of justice to the individuals of his nation, and to pre¬ 
venting the local authorities from interfering with 
them. But while the consul is relieved from those 
duties which render the consular establishment of 
value in Europe, he is removed far from the controul 
that renders the consul s duties in Europe obligatory. 
At those scales where there are European merchants, 
their court is a civil and commercial judicatory, and 
they are under the controul of European opinion or 
diplomatic authority ; but these scales are only three, 
Constantinople, Smyrna, and Alexandria. In other 
places where are we to find Europeans requiring any 
such protection? On the whole coasts of Barbary, 
the number of native English merchants is one; on 
the coasts of European Turkey, one; in the interior 
of European Turkey, one; on the coasts of the Black 
Sea, one. The first of these has been for years ap¬ 
pealing against the consul at the scale where he re¬ 
sides; the second has only been established three 
years; the third has not been two years established; 
the fourth is the consul himself, at Trebizonde, who, 


206 COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY. 

under the new era of eastern commerce, has been sent 
to endeavour to open and establish communications 
through that important outlet, with Armenia, the in¬ 
terior of Asia Minor, and Persia. 

Excepting, then, the important and necessary con¬ 
sular establishments of the three cities above-men¬ 
tioned, what can be expected from men who are in¬ 
fluenced by no routine of advancement, from whom no 
qualifications are required, who are subject to no 
real controul, who are armed with most dangerous 
power, and who have no duties to perform? 

The special immunities Turkey has so long been in 
the habit of granting to foreigners, not only in their 
civil, but in their commercial capacity, rendered it 
necessary for the native trader, in order to compete 
in any degree with the foreigner, to share in his pri¬ 
vileges. This advantage was only to be obtained 
through the protection of foreign agents. A traffic 
in protections was long carried on by our dragomans, 
consuls, and vice-counsels, as discreditable to the 
individuals engaged in it, as advantageous to the 
Turks. 

The first symptoms of the reformation which Turkey 
will yet owe to Greece, appeared in the granting of 
berats or protections by the Turkish government to its 
commercial subjects, putting the holders on the same 
footing as the foreign merchant; they were accom¬ 
panied by a permission to wear articles of costume 
forbidden to the rayas, and with a small firman con¬ 
taining similar privileges, which the holder of the 
berat could send to his correspondent. The sale of 
protections became less lucrative—it was abandoned ; 
the liberated native merchant trafficked with the free 


COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY. 207 


port of Malta; the monopoly of the Levant company 
became less profitable; its bye-laws retained their 
oppressiveness, and had lost their exclusiveness ; the 
charter was resigned; reduction of charges, enter¬ 
prise, activity, local knowledge, and parsimonious 
habits, gave the native merchants an immense supe¬ 
riority ; commerce circulated more rapidly and 
through new channels, and the class of men who be¬ 
fore humbly attended a consul's levee, have now 
possessed themselves of the traffic which the formerly 
privileged class have lost. The feeling of the 
Frank merchants and population, and consequently 
of the consuls, towards the Greeks, may be easily 
imagined.* 

The Greeks at the sea ports and those engaged in 
petty traffic with Europeans, have earned, most de¬ 
servedly, a character of accomplished roguery and 
chicane. This, then, with the change in their own 
prospects and position, has engendered the most en¬ 
venomed hatred in the breasts of the Franks against 
the Greeks, which is returned with interest; not 

* It was not our functionaries alone that made the mistake of con¬ 
sidering English commerce identified with English merchants, and 
consequently of supposing the interest of the Greeks in direct hosti¬ 
lity with those of the English. The Russian agents, fortunately for 
us, were of the same opinion, and this idea went no inconsiderable 
length in procuring for the Greek merchants and the Greek flag, 
the protection so sedulously afforded them by the Russian consuls. 
I think I have been able to trace this motive in more instances than 
one, and once had a direct and indiscreet avowal of it. It is curious 
to see the Russian policy benefiting England against her will; but 
it is a proud testimony of the just and philanthropic grounds on 
which our foreign influence now happily rests, when interested op 
position, however acute, is frustrated, not by counter intrigue, but 
by the common interests of men. 


208 COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY. 

to the benefit of our commerce which has passed into 
the hands of men every way calculated to extend 
its sphere, but who are, generally speaking, de¬ 
spised, and perhaps oppressed by our consuls, in a 
country where they are subject to arbitrary power, 
and the consul is armed with sometimes unlimited 
authority. 

On the vast extent of the northern shores of Africa, 
they are only regarded in the light of commissaries 
for the provisioning of Gibraltar and Malta, and 
throughout the rest of Turkey, except putting the 
stewards of men-of-war in the way to find meat and 
vegetables, there is positively no definable function 
which their best endeavours could invent, they can 
render no service to English merchants they never 
see; or to commerce, except statistical and commer¬ 
cial information which they have never furnished. 

Under the influence of the system, the class called 
Franks has grown up. This class not only prevents 
communications between the Turks and Europeans, 
but perpetuates old antipathies, misrepresents the 
one to the other, disqualifying Europeans from judg¬ 
ing of Turks or rayas, by instilling their own preju¬ 
dices, and debasing Europeans in the eyes of Turks, 
by our apparent identity with them. It might be 
supposed that where Europeans reside, there would 
be the greatest intercourse with the Turks—it is just 
the reverse; if you wish to know the natives or to be 
on friendly terms with them, go to some place where 
a Frank population has not made Europeans objects 
of contempt. 

As Turkey neither requires reciprocity for the 
freedom of trade she allows, nor corresponding im- 


COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY. 


209 


inunities and rights for her subjects in our territories, 
for those she grants to British subjects in hers, it is 
very clear that that freedom of commerce, and those 
immunities and rights, are granted and maintained of 
her own free will, and by reason of self-imposed obli¬ 
gations, and although restored, when violated, on 
the representations of our diplomatic or commercial 
agents, her own rule of right, not any compulsory 
power residing in them, is the ground of her decision. 

That once moral, now traditionary and political 
rule, as I have already endeavoured to show, has 
originated, first in the tangible evidence this financial 
simplicity affords of the injury inflicted on national 
industry and production, by burdening imposts; and 
secondly, in the sacredness of hospitality. But when 
the consul becomes the natural protector and host of 
the stranger, and the consul, by whatever cause, is 
at variance with the natives, a line of separation 
is drawn, which leaves the stranger without the 
individual advantages and protection of Turkish 
hospitality. I feel fully convinced, that, but for 
the indirect and scarcely definable effects of the 
system, English merchants, choosing to be content 
with the small profits and frugal habits of the native 
traders, and certainly such are not wanting, would 
ere now have spread our wares all over the East, with 
greater facilities than the native merchants; they 
would have enjoyed the commercial advantages which 
Turkey affords, without distinction, to all; their 
national character protecting them from much of 
the violence to which the rayas are subject. I 
have, during the most disturbed times, travelled 
through countries deemed impassable, with the most 

p 


210 


COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY. 


perfect security—without apprehension, and often 
without precaution—always receiving at their hands 
sedulous attentions and hospitality, excepting al¬ 
ways where a Frank population existed; for 
there it is not only not customary, but sometimes 
even against law, (as at Constantinople,) for Euro¬ 
peans to reside with Mussulmans. Tt has more than 
once occurred to me to be asked by Turks, why, 
when we travelled to spend money, we did not travel 
to make money ? # It is a known fact that America 
supplanted us in the colonial trade, when she had not 
a single commercial agent, and when her flag was not 
even recognized. 

This parasitical Frank population, the offspring of 
consular authority and prerogative, by education and 
habits are separated from Europeans. The effect of 
the exercise of the authority by which they exist, 
places them always in opposition, sometimes and not 
rarely in enmity, with the natives and masters of the 
country. The goodwill, which is the basis of all com¬ 
munication, is interrupted, and those friendly rela¬ 
tions are never commenced, which through individuals 
unite nations. Of all these negative but most de¬ 
plorable evils, the consular system is perhaps the 
innocent cause; but it has also wrongs of commission 
chargeable upon it; and these consist in the abuses 
to which the nominations of vice-consuls have given 
rise—the intermeddling of consuls with commerce, 
and, above all other things, their intermeddling in the 

* I have seen an Italian and a German attending the fairs of 
Upper Albania, dressed in the European manner, who even in that 
lawless country, had never suffered in person or property for their 
boldness. 


COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY. 211 

administrative, judiciary, and political, affairs of the 
country. 

It is scarcely worth while to allude to the motley 
crew of Jews, Armenians, Greeks, and Franks, who 
have been our vice-consuls, further than to remark, 
that the transfer of our commerce to so great an ex¬ 
tent from the hands of European to that of Greek 
merchants, relieves us from any further pretence of 
exposing our flag to insult, in confiding its guar¬ 
dianship to such unworthy hands. There was indeed 
little pretence before, as far as traffic was concerned, 
but there was always some pretext sought by a 
consul to increase in any way his patronage, and that 
pretext captains of men-of-war never failed to give, 
by complaining that they had entered such or such a 
bay, and no consul had come out to them. Yet these 
little personages would talk to one another just as 
the consuls—call Europeans “ our subjects,” “ nostri 
soggetti and the two, or three, or four Franks, or 
protected ray as of any scale, the “ nation * 

* In one of the islands of the Cyclades, illustrated by Anastasius 
in a remarkably precise manner, though its ingenious author was 
never known to have visited it. The transgressions of some French 
pigs on an English garden, that is, of pigs belonging to the French 
vice-consul on the garden of the English vice-consul, gave rise to 
diplomatic negociations, which lasted for several days, and dis¬ 
turbed the repose of the factious community, which, already split 
into English and French parties, had broken heads and noses about 
Napoleon and the Duke of Wellington; and had now all their 
animosity re-awakened by the impudence of the French pigs. The 
pigs had been pounded by the English vice-consul, the French vice- 
consul had demanded their release, through the channel of his 
cancelliere, in full uniform. The English vice-consul fully admitted 
that the most friendly relations subsisted between the two govern¬ 
ments, but declared—and this was the point on which public opinion 

p 2 


212 


COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY. 


In the Levant the consuls being the only judicial 
authority, the question of permission to trade rests 
on very different grounds than it does in Europe. 
Where there is no British merchant, the objections 
will not hold ; but what then would be the use of the 
consul, except where, as in the case of Trebizonde, 
an intelligent merchant is sent under the denomination 
of consul, to extend our commerce? When a consul 
is engaged in traffic, his interest and his duty are 
constantly placed in opposition ; his interests lead 
him to restrict, not to extend—to conceal, not to 
communicate. The information he possesses, the in¬ 
telligence he receives, is strictly confined to himself; 
and thus that which really is the chief end of his 
mission is entirely frustrated. Whenever his in¬ 
terests clash with those of other merchants, of mas¬ 
ters, ship-owners, brokers, underwriters, supercar¬ 
goes, his official authority must be liable at least to 
the suspicion of partiality; and instead of an inde¬ 
pendent magistrate, he becomes an interested party. 
He is subject to the contingencies of bankruptcy, 
and may embarrass our political relations by the im¬ 
proper defence of his property and commercial and 
agricultural operations. 

was divided —“ that he could recognize no character of nationality 
in the pigs, seeing they did not wear the tri-colour cockade.” 

It might seem scarcely possible to treat the subject gravely with¬ 
out having seen the influence and the advantage we squander by this 
means. Our vice-consuls, especially, brought dishonour on our 
name and disgrace on our flag. It has been torn down in Cyprus 
within the last eighteen months; the consul’s house has been plun¬ 
dered at Rhodes ; in Sidon the flag has been trampled under foot; 
in Tyre the agent has been imprisoned, and the interpreter flogged. 
In Acre the dragoman is still in a dungeon, &c.”— Madden's 
Travels , vol. i. p. 15G. 


COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY. 


213 


To this injurious intermeddling with commerce 
must be added their interference with the adminis¬ 
tration of justice* and of police—their not unfrequent 
political intrigues—the power they possess of mis¬ 
representation—of injuring pashas with their own 
government, which is ever ready to seize a pretext 
for fines and punishments—of embroiling the autho¬ 
rities of sea-ports with the captains of our men-of-war 
—and of making (such things have been) even their 
presence and friendly visits the means of intimi¬ 
dation. 

Possessed of these powers, they are subject to no 
efficient, to no real responsibility or controul; and 
their dignity leads them into as many errors as their 
interest. The self-importance and pretensions of a 
Levant consul have indeed become as proverbial 
among Europeans as their rapacity and corruptibility 


* “To the perpetrator of every crime, not even excepting- murder, 
the roof of the English consul affords a sanctuary .”—Denhams 
Travels in Central Africa , Introduction. 

This is said in proof of the proud influence of England. Is it 
strange, under such circumstances, that our flag becomes a hostile 
emblem, and that pashas and governors use every effort to stop all 
commercial dealing with us? An anecdote immediately follows, 
illustrative, not, as it is intended, of the utility of our interference, 
but of the good feelings of the people which we abuse. A “ poor 
wretch,” pursued by the guard, fortunately meets the nurse and 
child of an Englishman. “ The condemned wretch, with wonderful 
presence of mind, snatched up the child in his arms, and boldly 
halted before his pursuers. The talisman was sufficiently powerful— 
the emblem of innocence befriended the guilty, and the culprit 
walked on uninterrupted, triumphantly claiming the protection of the 
English flag.” This, very flag having been hauled down several 
times in one year after written declarations of war. See on this 
head Lord Collingwood’s correspondence. 


214 


COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY. 


unfortunately are among the Turks. But it must be 
recollected that the demerits of one individual efface 
the merits of twenty. 

Turkey is a nation which, from the very precarious- 
ness of her position, it is peculiarly necessary for us 
to conciliate, not by that servile pandering to her 
passions, and obsequious charity for her crimes, by 
which some nations have degraded in her eyes the 
European character; but by the urbanity a nation, 
as an individual, owes to itself, by the firmness it 
owes to an unfortunate and erring, but confiding 
friend. We have an immense stake in Turkey, and 
that stake is opinion. Exasperate her, all your pros¬ 
pects vanish; you have no means of reprisal if she 
seriously intends to injure you; and you throw her 
into a dependence on others equally injurious to you 
and revolting to her. Insults innumerable have been 
offered to our flag and to our minor agents; yet 
Turkey has no intention of affronting us. In every 
individual instance, I have no doubt, the wrongs we 
could officially prove to have been on the side of the 
Turks. But was it not in our power to conciliate 
their favour and esteem ? Is it not so whenever we 
choose to take the proper means ? When cannon 
balls are sent into governor’s divans—when the 
British flag is hauled down at a moment’s notice— 
when even declarations of war are fulminated by 
subordinate agents, can it be matter of surprise that 
our consular system has sowed the seeds of ani¬ 
mosity, has perpetuated old prejudices, and thwarted 
the discriminating confidence, which would fain select 
England from the nations of Europe as pattern and 
protector ? 


COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY. 5 

But arguments on this point are not worth testi¬ 
mony; the justice or injustice of the opinion of the 
Turks matters little; it is the opinion itself which is 
important: that opinion is as unfavourable as it 
possibly can be to our consular establishments. 

The only guarantee for a consul’s integrity, in his 
dealings with the natives and the local authorities, 
when removed from the observation of the ambassador 
and of Europeans, must be his personal character. 
In no situation is the selection of the individual more 
important, for this is the very root and fibre of our 
commercial growth, and in none are there less induce¬ 
ments held out to make the situations worth the ac¬ 
ceptance of such men as are fitted for rendering their 
offices the means of collecting useful materials, and of 
exercising a wholesome influence over the country— 
men capable of pointing out improvements beneficial 
to the country, zealous in the extension of enlighten¬ 
ment, so as to secure respect at once by their useful¬ 
ness and their intellectual superiority. For this, 
some proficiency is requisite in scientific pursuits, 
some instruction in public economy, the means of 
ready communication by language, and, above all, 
zeal, that supplies deficiencies and overcomes obsta¬ 
cles. The Turks, as other men, judge of the un¬ 
known by the known ; the man that can give them a 
useful hint in the cultivation of a farm, will be con¬ 
sidered a sure guide in other matters. Shaken pre¬ 
judices, belied maxims, disturbed routine, have 
yielded to the expedient and the useful. A European 
travelling at present in Turkey, and willing to satisfy 
their inquisitiveness, would, night after night, or 
wherever he rested, be incessantly questioned—on 


21G 


COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY. 


forms of government, on courts of justice, commerce, 
on the press, the improvement and application of 
machinery, organization of troops, and on agriculture. 
How often has it occurred to myself to lament my 
inability to satisfy their wishes, when this request, 
often repeated, has been made to me: “ Tell us 
something useful, by which we may recollect that a 
European has been amongst us.” 

The altered state of the Levant trade relieves us 
from all further pretext of having discreditable agents 
at the out-ports ; and if consuls were less absorbed 
in private concerns and the registration of fees, a 
smaller number of efficient men would suffice; if, 
indeed, tit men can be found willing to sacrifice them¬ 
selves to perpetual imprisonment in a Levant scale, 
so long as not a chance of advancement in their own 
line is held out to them, or of elevation to a higher 
grade. 

In conclusion, Turkey is a country having three 
thousand miles of coast still remaining, and a territory 
of five hundred thousand square miles, under the hap¬ 
piest climate, possessed of the richest soil, raising 
every variety of produce, having unrivalled facilities 
of transport, abounding in forests and mines, opening 
innumerable communications with countries further to 
the east, with all which our traffic is carried on in 
English bottoms, where labour is cheap, where indus¬ 
try is unshackled, and commerce is free, where our 
goods command every market, where government 
and consumers alike desire their introduction. But 
all the advantages that may accrue to us from so 
favourable a state of things, is contingent on her 
internal tranquillity and political re-organization. 


COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY. 


217 


Here is a field for diplomatic action of the noblest 
and most philanthropic character, where our interests 
are so much at stake as to call forth our most strenuous 
exertions, and where that interest is so reciprocal as 
to involve no selfish motives, and to introduce no 
invidious distinctions. 


218 


CHAPTER XI. 

PRESENT RELATIONS OF TURKEY WITH RUSSIA, 
AUSTRIA, AND FRANCE. 

The political state of Turkey is brought to a crisis, 
which if favourable will, I believe, be the means of 
her speedy regeneration ; and if unfavourable, of her 
speedy dissolution : the long and industrious, and 
hitherto eminently successful labours of Russia, are 
therefore on the point of being crowned with com¬ 
plete success, or of being entirely frustrated. Open 
aggression has been carried as far as practicable, and, 
when stopped, she has claimed merit for moderation. 
The treaty of Adrianople was, at the time, supposed 
a blow which Turkey could never recover: it was 
immediately, however, followed by the astonishing 
event of the subjugation of Albania ; tranquillity was 
restored to Roumelie ; and the raya population, for 
the first time since Turkey was an empire, began to 
look with affection on the Porte; the organization of 
troops commenced, and Russia must have anticipated 
the possibility of Turkey’s becoming, with a little 
leisure, now at the twelfth hour, a commercial and 
a military power. The sympathies of the raya popu¬ 
lation, on whom Russia's hopes of agitation depended, 


PRESENT RELATIONS OF TURKEY, &C. 219 

were evidently escaping from her ; her former allies, 
the Bulgarians, who had been carried into Russia, 
were escaping back to Turkey ; the Servians, inde¬ 
pendent through her means, evincing a no ecjuivocal 
preference to the Porte; the Armenians of Erzerum 
bewailed her protection and interference; and even 
Greece avowed no less indignation at her policy 
than disgust at the specimens she had had of her 
people. The occupation of Adrianople, and the 
sight of her troops, had obliterated the oppression of 
the Turkish government; wantonly burned villages 
and forced contributions, had dissipated the hopes 
fostered, at a great expense of money, of mission¬ 
ary labours, and of the intrigue of years. A splen¬ 
did opportunity of pursuing her object under a new 
form, if not made, was eagerly seized, on the rebellion 
of Mehemet Ali; and, as may be expected, every 
thing will be staked on this throw. The ability, and 
the number of her agents, her commanding political 
position, and her money scattered with a lavish hand, 
have placed the councils of Turkey at her disposal: 
the venality and corruption of the Turkish govern¬ 
ments are sufficiently notorious ;—all these influences 
will now be simultaneously and unremittingly put in 
operation to bring about the necessity for an inter¬ 
vention, and to reduce the sultan to such a state 
of difficulty and exhaustion, as to implore himself the 
support of Russia—and reconciliation with Ibrahim 
will be by every means prevented—and, above all, 
every effort will be used to prevent the sultan from 
adopting the only true and politic course that remains 
open to him—a call on the Christian population of 
Roumelie. 


220 PRESENT RELATIONS OF TURKEY WITH 

The effect of the intervention, when brought about, 
is but too evident the degradation of the character 
and authority of the sultan, who will hold his office at 
the pleasure of Russia; the absolute controul of the 
administration, the arrestation of the organization of 
the country, the insulting of the prejudices of the 
Turks, the injuring of the interests of all, the oppro¬ 
brium of which would fall on the sultan; in fact, 
Nicholas would exercise, as protector, an authority 
he never could enjoy as conqueror, he would be 
as absolute at Constantinople as at Moscow, with 
no apprehension of re-action ; and the celebrated 
scheme so lately hazarded in the St. Petersburg 
Gazette, which indicated Mount Taurus as the future 
and visionary limits between Russia and Egypt, 
would be, in fact, to the letter realized. 

The particular bearings of the policy of Russia 
may be better appreciated by considering it in con¬ 
nexion with that of Austria and France. 

The views of Austria, though hitherto very equi¬ 
vocal as regards the welfare of Turkey, have been 
opposed throughout to Russia; her minister, by not 
the most honourable means, (a forged correspondence 
between the Hetserists and the Carbonari,) succeeded 
in obtaining from Alexander an anathema against the 
revolution of Greece, which she volunteered her ser¬ 
vices to suppress, from the double dread of free insti¬ 
tutions and Russian influence; but this offer the 
Turks, with hitherto unappreciated dignity, rejected. 
She sees with the greatest alarm an independent state 
under the sovereignty of Turkey, on her Illyrian fron¬ 
tier ; she has incessantly urged the Porte to mea¬ 
sures, the result of which would have been, to have 


RUSSIA, AUSTRIA, AND FRANCE. 221 

left it without any hold on the affections of its Chris¬ 
tian subjects. Her object has been to preserve the 
Porte as a condescending and powerless neighbour, 
and as an oppressed people, affording an example of 
misrule and submission to her own subjects—strong 
enough to resist Russia, but weak enough to be de¬ 
pendent on Austria. This struggle pervades their 
general policy: it is maintained in their diplomacy at 
Constantinople ; it is extended to the disputed soil of 
Wallachia. But Russia has various means of weaken¬ 
ing the hands and distracting the councils of Austria. 
Gallicia is reminded, that her orders are delivered in 
German ; Servia is flattered by emissaries of a higher 
order ; there Russia speaks of civil liberty, as well 
as of national independence; and, as lately in Greece, 
patriots, and men of letters, do not consider them¬ 
selves disgraced by her service. As an indication of 
her policy in that quarter, she sends a press to 
Belgrade, to publish newspapers in Servian —the lan¬ 
guage of the military colonists of Hungary , who are 
not left in ignorance of the Russian creeds being the 
same as that for which they have been so long perse¬ 
cuted by Austria. Thus while these two govern¬ 
ments, with the exception of Turkish policy, appear 
generally to agree, none ever maintained so obstinate 
a struggle, and on so many points—the inveteracy of 
which is only equalled by its secrecy ; but they fight on 
very different grounds : Russia is an unwieldy, but a 
solid mass of nationality; Austria is a theory and 
a system—a government without a nation. If the 
energies required to maintain internal tranquillity 
were set free, Austrian influence would, at the very 
least, counterbalance that of Russia in Turkey. 


222 PRESENT RELATIONS OF TURKEY WITH 

Russia, therefore, gives her occupation at home ; and 
were she to direct her shafts blindfold, Austria would 
present a vulnerable part; for though the people 
under the sway of Austria are generally in easy and 
comfortable circumstances, and in a state of gradual, 
but steady progression, and though they might cheer¬ 
fully submit to her general supremacy, which secures 
internal and external tranquillity; yet her sectarian 
zeal—whilst a considerable portion of her subjects, 
and, indeed, all her eastern subjects, profess a dif¬ 
ferent creed —her police and custom-house severity, 
and the hostile position which in consequence of 
these the government habitually assumes, create a 
general discontent and irritation, the more dangerous 
from being smothered. Thus the existence of Austria 
is one of continual alarms—her sensibilities are put 
to torture at the sight of a newspaper, at the sound 
of a national air, at the odour of contraband tobacco ;* 
and while in the western provinces she is startled at 
a tri-colour cockade, in the eastern she shudders 
at the sight of a Muscovite button. The only in¬ 
terests that brought these governments into apparent 
concord, save the mutual wish to conceal and dis¬ 
guise from foreign powers their secret animosities, 
were common antipathy to the principles of France, 
and the common necessity of keeping down their 
Polish provinces; both these motives have now lost 
their force : the cock of France has become domesti¬ 
cated, and Austria, an empire of equilibrium, would 
be startled from her propriety, no less by the prepon- 

* The Hungarian tobacco is prepared in a way that gives the 
smoke a peculiar smell, so that the custom-house officers can detect, 
in passing along the street, any person smoking foreign tobacco. 


RUSSIA, AUSTRIA, AND FRANCE. 223 

derance of Russian legitimacy, than by that of French 
republicanism. The other object, the keeping in sub¬ 
jection the provinces of Poland, has vanished with 
the nationality of Poland ; that event has severed the 
bond of positive political necessity, which united 
Russia to Prussia and to Austria, so that this latter 
government may be considered disposed, with the 
self-denial both as to favourite principles and envied 
possessions, which the earnestness of the crisis de¬ 
mands, to support Turkey to the very utmost of her 
power. 

The Russian scheme is to satisfy Austria with the 
provinces to the south of the Save, as far as the 
Egean Sea, if she pleases; but Austria may have 
little taste for such subjects ; and Wallachia, now 
increasing in importance more than ever to Austria, 
by the approaching opening of the navigation of the 
Danube, becomes for the same reason no less neces¬ 
sary now to the maintenance of the actual commercial 
prosperity of Russia, than it has always been to the 
furtherance of her political objects. 

The policy of France, from her continental position, 
must be to meet and combat Russia, openly and un¬ 
compromisingly, whenever a field of contest is open to 
the two powers ; nor do I think we shall be far wrong 
in assuming this to be the ruling impulse of her policy 
in the East, as elsewhere, and of her earnestness in 
supporting the Porte. 

That political influence and commercial advantages 
are only to be acquired by fleets and armies, by occu¬ 
pation and intimidation, seems to have been the prin¬ 
ciple which France, naturally enough perhaps, has acted 
on in her eastern relations. It is needless to retrace, but 


224 PRESENT RELATIONS OF TURKEY WITH 

not useless to bear in mind, the old historic longing of 
France for Egypt, and the importance she has ever 
attached to the possession of that country as the means 
of injuring the English dominion in India. When 
Greece made an offer of itself to England, it was 
rendered a matter of public notoriety that the influ¬ 
ence of England was paramount in the Levant to the 
exclusion, both in Turkey and Greece, of every other. 
France was placed under the necessity of forming 
some counterbalancing Levant connexion. It cannot 
be doubtful to what quarter she would turn her eyes 
—Egypt, the spot of her predilections, the theatre of 
the glory of Napoleon, the arena fertilized by the 
blood of France, the darling objects of so many 
statesmen, the focus of so many schemes, was free 
from foreign connexion, was united under a powerful, 
an ambitious, and a half independent prince, who 
was glad to accept the patronage France was eager 
to bestow. But however alluring the project, I am 
far from attributing to the French cabinet the pre¬ 
concerted design of such a connexion as that which I 
suppose I must now say lately existed between France 
and Mehemet Ali. But one step may have led to an¬ 
other ; the cabinet may have found itself committed 
by the acts of its agent—even its agents may have 
had their own views, and the admiral, the prime 
mover in the whole affair, may have received many 
coloured instructions. How that connexion may have 
been brought about, or by whose means, is very un¬ 
important now. # The destruction of the Turkish 

* Those in the French cabinet who considered England the 
“ natural’’ enemy of France, must, no doubt, have been exceedingly 


RUSSIA, AUSTRIA, AND FRANCE. 


225 


fleet, the entanglement of England and France in the 
treaty of 6th July, and the internal events of Turkey, 
opened to Russia new prospects of aggrandizement. 
France, seeing the accessions Russia received in the 
north, bethought herself of balancing them by placing 
herself in a similar position in the south. Leaving 
Austria and England to dispute the European pro¬ 
vinces of Turkey and Asia with the Muscovite, she 
turned towards her Egyptian friend; her eyes wandered 
along the coast of Barbary, and ventured even to 
trace long vistas in central Africa. The insulting con • 
duct of a French consul produced an eagerly seized 
insult in return, (for still had a portion of the cabinet 
to drag the remainder by such artifices into its views,) 
and, with an external display of moderation, cutting 
indignities were secretly cast on a not very enduring- 
spirit, that of Husein Pasha, dey of Algiers : the 
result was, the waving of the standard of France on 
that important fortress, which gave her a tete devout 
across the Mediterranean. Here was a basis for future 

alarmed at the unequivocal declaration of Greece in favour of English 
protection, a declaration which (though it might not have been an 
object with the cabinet itself) both French money and French efforts 
were employed to prevent. As diplomatists still are men, it is not 
a supposition very unnatural that those who were interested in 
these plans, on their complete failure should have looked on the 
progress of the Greek revolution with no friendly eye, and that they 
should have sought to gratify private pique in advancing what per¬ 
haps they fancied a national object, and which opened, too, to them¬ 
selves a chance of rapid advancement. All these objects would be 
realized by adopting this maxim, “ that the influence of England 
over Greece could only be counteracted by the possession of that 
country by Mehemet Ali, who would, with such a possession, be de¬ 
pendent, both for it and for Egypt, on the good-will of France.’ 7 


226 PRESENT RELATIONS OF TURKEY WITH 

operations, and, had she used the opportunity well, of 
new triumphs for humanity. From this point she could 
support Mehemet Ali in subjugating the regencies on 
the coast; that is to say, make use of his military and 
other means, and Mussulman authority, to establish 
a power, from Suez to Algiers, dependent on France, 
and held In constant check by the weakness of Egypt 
on the side of Syria and Arabia, by its resting on the 
French citadel to the west, by its being exposed along 
the coast to the maritime power of France, and by the 
schism of the two M ussulman powers. 

That France had a hand in exciting Mehemet Ali 
to direct revolt, is an idea not for a moment to be en¬ 
tertained ; but it can scarcely admit a shadow of 
doubt that, but for France, Mehemet Ali never would 
have revolted. But when the crisis came, Russia 
stepped in, took advantage of all that France had 
done, pointed out Syria, not Barbary, to the ambition 
of Mehemet Ali, and at this moment how must 
that crafty power smile at France’s alarm at her own 
handy work! how must she be amused at Admiral 
Roussin’s officious and ludicrously confident guaran- 
teeship for Mehemet Ali! She, who holds all the 
threads in her hands, and plays the puppets, may 
well afford to be magnanimous, and to promise dis¬ 
interestedly to retire when the French guarantee- 
ship is fulfilled.* The interest of France was, that 


* This was written on the receipt of the news that Admiral Rous- 
siu had arrived, arrested Ibrahim, and expelled the Russians. It 
was written with the view of pointing- out either the error Admiral 
R. had committed, or the miscalculation France had made; and 
consequently to show that the negociations were not in the least ad¬ 
vanced, and that France had torn away the veil from her secret 


RUSSIA, AUSTRIA, AND FRANCE. 227 

Mehemet Ali slioulcl be independent of Turkey so 
far only as to be dependent on her, so that her influ¬ 
ence might predominate in Egypt, and that her pos¬ 
session of Algiers might be utilized; but Mehemet 
Ali, whatever might have been his promises or en¬ 
gagements to France/must have been fully aware that 
he never could come to an open rupture with the Porte 
without possessing himself of Syria; he must have 
known that no influence of France, that no efforts she 
could make, even were she inclined uncompromisingly 
to support him, could protect him against the clouds 
of enemies with which the sultan could cover his 
desert frontiers, and the secret conspiracies that would 
be formed against him, to say nothing of direct inva¬ 
sion, unless he could extend his power to Mount 
Taurus, and thereby intercept all communication be¬ 
tween Arabia and the Porte, while he himself pos¬ 
sessed Acre and Syria. 

The possession of these countries, and of this fron¬ 
tier, of course falsifies the calculations of France, and 
deprives her of all advantage from her former con¬ 
nexion with Egypt. Mehemet Ali no longer requires 
her assistance; nay, he has escaped from her tute¬ 
lage ; extending the basis of his power, and in a dif¬ 
ferent direction, he can stand alone, or form those new 
connexions which his new position require, and which 
may be, as, perhaps, they are, the most opposite to 
the interests of France, the most contradictory of all 
her anticipations, and with which she may have tamely 

intrigues, at a moment when she thought them matured and suc¬ 
cessful ; but, in fact, only to show that she had been completely 
duped. My anticipations were speedily realized, and so completely, 
as to give me nothing to alter in the text. 


228 PRESENT RELATIONS OF TURKEY WITH 

to put up, or suffer even worse results. If France, 
either with a view of supporting the Porte, or of 
bringing back Egypt to a state of dependence on her¬ 
self, throws obstacles in the way of the cession to 
Mehemet Ali of the frontier absolutely necessary to 
his existence, she postpones indefinitely the termina¬ 
tion of a fearful crisis, and perhaps leads to further 
accession to Mehemet Ali’s power, or to a partition 
of the Asiatic provinces of the empire between him 
and Russia. The sudden and confident interfer¬ 
ence of Admiral Roussin establishes two points; 
the first the connexion between France and Mehemet 
Ali, and the conviction consequently that he could not 
oppose the unequivocal wishes of France; and the 
second, that Mehemet Ali had outwitted France, 
who could not, up to the period of Admiral Roussin’s 
orders being delivered to him, have been aware of the 
completely altered position in which Mehemet Ali 
stood when he had occupied Acre and Mount Taurus. 
It must be exceedingly mortifying to France, at this 
moment, to find, as I am fully convinced she does, all 
her plans rendered abortive, and the fruits of her 
labours transferred to Russia, for, of course, it is Me¬ 
hemet Ali ? s interest now, not indeed to seek the pro¬ 
tection of Russia, but to concert measures with her 
for the weakening of the authority of the sultan, and 
for the dismemberment both of Turkey and of Persia.* 
1 his failure of the schemes of France, this failure 

* The offer of a Persian army to support the sultan, and the late 
strengthening of friendly relations between these powers, show that 
Persia, amid her more instant dangers, and her internal disorders, 
feels her weakness on the side of Arabia, and apprehends the coming 
storm. 


RUSSIA, AUSTRIA, AND FRANCE. 229 

of her plans of separate negociation, fortunately bring 
her in her eastern relations to unreserved concurrence 
in the policy of England, and to that intimate union 
of interest and of measures necessary to the peace of 
Europe and the interests of humanity. But what 
can be said of the foresight or forethought of a ca¬ 
binet which prepared, in the end, to risk so much for 
the support of the Turkish government, and, pos¬ 
sessed of all this secret information and influence, has 
allowed matters to proceed to such a point—the Porte 
to be put in jeopardy, and Egypt to be lost to the ob¬ 
jects France had in view, while in the earlier stages 
of the business she might so easily have moulded cir¬ 
cumstances to her will, by leading both to nego- 
ciate, by withdrawing from Mehemet Ali, in case 
of obstinacy, the support he in so many ways re¬ 
ceived from France, or by urging on the Porte 
the supporting of Acre, and the defending of Taurus, 
or by sending Admiral Roussin just one year sooner. 

If the question was merely whether Ibrahim or 
Mehemet should be chief of the Turkish empire, we 
should have to grapple with comparatively few of the 
difficulties which surround it at present. That empire 
was too extended and too diversified in race, lan¬ 
guage, religion, and interests, to have been held to¬ 
gether by the ablest European administration—it has 
been held together by a weak and profligate admini¬ 
stration, which, however, allowed to opinion, to in¬ 
dustry, to commerce, to prejudice and habits, a free¬ 
dom and equality which have been very imperfectly 
felt in Europe ; and it was steadied by a local military 
oligarchy, depending in each province on its general 
connexion for support against local resistance. That 


230 PRESENT RELATIONS OF TURKEY WITH 

oligarchy being destroyed—that portions of the em¬ 
pire and particular races should throw off their alle¬ 
giance—that nations should like to be governed by 
men who speak their language and profess their creed 
— that local resistance should oppose the unjust man¬ 
dates of the general authority, even when that autho¬ 
rity is recognized,— are consequences to be anticipated 
and provided for; but if the government of the Porte 
could be remodelled, the provinces would be interested 
in supporting it for common and general political pur¬ 
poses, and even for the protection of their sectional 
independence. 

The affections and attachment of the tributary states 
wait on the Porte whenever that government is re¬ 
duced to the helplessness of being just. The awe 
imbibed by the rayas with their first milk, the magic 
of the name, the habit of command and submission, 
give the Turkish government advantages which, if 
properly used, are immense. Would a Servian submit 
to a Greek? would a Greek admit the supremacy of 
a son of the Scythian race? Would either submit 
themselves to an Albanian or a Bosniac, or either of 
these recognize any authority in one of their former 
rayas ? But all cheerfully support the Porte, if it gives 
a field of exercise to those who bear arms, and ensures 
tranquillity and non-interference to those who cultivate 
the soil, or who struggle in the busy arena of industry 
and commerce. I feel convinced that the people feel 
this practically, though they cannot find words or 
mouths to express now what, if the Porte were sub¬ 
verted, bloodshed, and anarchy, and invasion, would 
cause to ring even in our distant ears. 

Since the new order of things commenced in Rou- 


RUSSIA, AUSTRIA, AND FRANCE. 231 

melie, the time has been short, experience slippery, 
and facts few ; yet we have enough to show the tem¬ 
per of the people. The Bulgarians were raised into 
open revolt by the approach of the Russians. These 
men were humble unarmed rayas, the Servians were 
armed and strong, long in connexion with Russia; 
they could have supported her with 25,000 excellent 
troops -they did not stir —they were in the enjoyment 
of some rights and wore arms —on the insurrection 
of Albania, they offered their assistance to the Porte, 
which was refused through a remaining jealousy of a 
Christian’s, even though a tributary’s, co-operation. The 
Bosniacs, who formerly had been employed against the 
insurgent Servians, expected to find the Servians now 
their allies : but no—by the very insurrection of Servia 
she was now interested in supporting the paramount 
authority of the Porte, by which her liberties were 
secured. Servia remained tranquil during the struggle, 
because her services were refused, but the Milosh 
maintained an armed and imposing attitude, which 
greatly contributed to the success of the grand vizir. 

On the advance of Ibrahim the disaffected of the 
Albanians—indeed the mass of the Albanians—wished 
to seize the opportunity of recommencing their plun¬ 
der of the Christians. But these Christians, within 
the last two years, had become a new people, the num¬ 
ber of armed men greatly increased, were united, and 
reposing themselves on the authority of the Porte— 
acted, in fact, in the sultan’s name, which formerly 
was the watchword of the Albanians; so that though 
the country was drained of troops, the Albanians did 
not dare to move, lest a rising of the Christians should 
take place against them. In this dilemma, they tarn- 


232 PRESENT RELATIONS OF TURKEY WITH 

pered with the most turbulent of the free Greeks, pro¬ 
posed au insurrection against the Porte, &c., and had 
their proposals rejected ! This requires no comment. 
Greece once settled, has, in all respects, interests iden¬ 
tical with the Porte, and I have no doubt will be bound 
to it by the strongest ties. 

But, besides all other inducements, the very posi¬ 
tion of Constantinople gives all the surrounding states 
an interest in supporting the possessor of that fast¬ 
ness, emporium, and metropolis. This is no uncertain 
or ephemeral motive—it is a consequence of at once 
the geographical structure of the country, and of the 
hostile presence of northern masses, which are now 
such as they were three thousand years ago. “ Though 
the Byzantines, 5 * says Polybius, “ are possessed of the 
first and best advantages of this happy position, yet, 
since through their means we are enabled to obtain 
many things which are of the greatest use to us, it 
seems natural that they should be regarded by the 
Greeks as common benefactors and receive not only 
favour and acknowledgments, but assistance likewise, 
to repel all attempts that may be made against them 
by their northern neighbours.”* 

For the restoration of its authority, the Porte has 
not yet been allowed one moment’s time. The peace 
of Adrianople was almost immediately followed by 
the formidable league of the Albanian beys. The 
right arm of the empire was raised against it. The 
sultan called on his Greek subjects ; the struggle was 
severe, but the triumph was complete : and wheu 
Europe thought Turkey trampled in the dust, her 
power from the Adriatic to the Euxine, among the 


4 Book iv. c. 5. 


RUSSIA, AUSTRIA, AND PRANCE. 233 

Albanians, the Bosniacs, and the independent Ser¬ 
vians, was for a moment thoroughly established, as it 
never had been established in the days of Murad II. 
or Suleyman. In Anatoly all power was in abeyance; 
the authority of the Porte was only nominal; it was 
ready to submit to the first rebel who could establish 
a police, but that required a disciplined army. The 
grand vizir, even during his fearful struggle with 
the Albanians, was hastening the organization of 
troops for the conquest of Anatoly, as it might be 
called, and for the reduction of Mehemet Ali. “ The 
old fox,” he observed, “has seized the moment well; 
had he given me another year, I would have made 
Egypt like a shaved chin.” 

The troops, half disciplined, of the grand vizir, 
did not exceed twenty-thousand; the Bosniacs, the 
disaffected Albanians, were to be restrained, the 
passes of the mountains, the fortresses, had to be 
garrisoned, the governors had to be supplied with 
troops—so that his disposable force never exceeded 
six thousand men; with these, his victories were ob¬ 
tained. The recruits he made during the contest sup¬ 
plied the losses, and no more; and the same numbers 
only accompanied him into Asia, and these alone sup¬ 
ported him in his lamentably rash attack on the re¬ 
treating Ibrahim, in which most of them sealed their 
devotion with their blood. On such slender chances 
do the destinies of Turkey now hang. 

Greece has become independent because her peo¬ 
ple fought. Mehemet Ali's revolt is that of a pasha, 
in which the people are not interested. The people, 
dissatisfied with the rnisgovernment under which the 
empire has so long groaned, detests every where its 


234 PRESENT RELATIONS OF TURKEY WITH 

immediate rulers—attack the sultan in Anatoly—he 
is powerless; attack Mehemet Ali in Egypt—he is 
still more so ; but the attacking party must have a 
disciplined army, must not excite against itself the 
very antipathy that gives it power. In a country, 
naturally so strong, amongst a population of armed 
men, what would Ibrahim’s army be if it excited the 
animosity of the inhabitants ? 

If, as I have stated, the tendency of the change in 
the administration of Turkey, is to nationalize, by 
race, language, and strong geographical lines, the 
different populations which lately composed that em¬ 
pire, whilst for common and internal advantage the 
supremacy of the Porte would still be anxiously 
maintained, as the late conduct of Servia clearly 
shows, how is this proposition illustrated, it will be 
asked, by the revolt of Ibrahim, and his success ? A 
disciplined army was confessedly necessary to restore 
any form or authority of government in Asia; Ibra¬ 
him had that army : he has stepped in to take advan¬ 
tage of the crisis before the Porte had an army for 
that purpose, and while its hands were full: might 
not then Ibrahim supplant Mahmoud, and things re¬ 
main as they are ? No, for three principal reasons— 
first, though he may establish himself in Syria and 
Egypt, it is very unlikely he will establish his autho¬ 
rity in Asia Minor, over a race different from his, 
speaking another language, and haughtily scorning 
the Arab race : his easy conquest proves one thing 
among others, that it may be reconquered with the 
like facility. The second, that in Europe the authority 
of the sultan may cease, that Constantinople may fall, 
andits population be cringing at Ibrahim’s feet; but the 


RUSSIA, AUSTRIA, AND FRANCE. 235 

mountains and mountaineers of Roumelie will then 
scorn alike Ibrahim and Mahmoud, and all govern¬ 
ment will be subverted. The Albanians might in¬ 
trigue with Mehemet Ali at Alexandria, but not with 
Ibrahim at Broussa. These warlike tribes, lately re¬ 
duced to submission, may break out again into par¬ 
tial insurrection, but their object will only be the 
pillage of the Christians. The Christians, now raised 
in importance, may resist them ; but neither the first 
nor the last would submit like the Anatolians, whose 
subdivisions are merely territorial, and who have 
always been ruled by the superior energies of the 
European and Arabian portions of the empire. And 
what would be the result of Ibrahim’s nominal pos¬ 
session of Turkish Anatoly, while a Turkish power 
and a Turkish sultan held Roumelie ? The third, and 
conclusive reason is, that his attempt at supplanting 
the sultan would inevitably lead to the placing the 
sultan under Russian tutelage, whence all the con¬ 
sequences, disastrous alike to Turkey, Mehemet Ali, 
our commercial and political interests, already indi¬ 
cated, would flow. Let the sultan be kept independent 
of the Russians, then Mehemet Ali forms in Syria 
and Egypt a cordial union with Russia ; let him be 
driven to this step—so much the better, of course, for 
Russia, but so much the worse for Mehemet Ali. If 
he gives lieu to this, Russia, after having made Me¬ 
hemet Ali outwit France, will outwit him. 

In Syria the Arabic is the language of the people; 
the populations are of different races and creeds. 
Maronites, Metualis, Druzes, &c., independent moun¬ 
taineers, who might be glad of a field for military 
service— who would rejoice in the prostration of the 


236 PRESENT RELATIONS OF TURKEY. 

Turkish power—they would submit to a chief, who, 
maintaining the balance between the rival tribes and 
races, would be still dependent on their general 
port. In fact, these populations, with the Arabs, 
Calmucs, and Afgahns, the mountains and deserts 
stretching to the east, point out a clear delimitation 
beween the Turkish and the Arabic languages. Jbra- 
rahim, when at St. Jean d’Acre, was asked, if vic¬ 
torious, how far he would advance ? “ As far,” he 

replied, “ as I can make myself understood in 
Arabic. 5 ’ 

It is impossible to anticipate the results of the in¬ 
fluence of Russia: the crisis, for the moment, is delayed, 
but unless fair and honorable lists are secured, it must 
be fatal when it comes. But Russia too is treading on 
a smothered volcano. When Captain Pym threatened 
to fire on the Russians if they molested the Greeks, 
what did the Russians do ? They sunk the Greek 
vessels. The English captain could have sunk the 
Russians—there was our weakness ; we took no pre¬ 
caution, and our subsequent interference could not 
retrieve the error or repair the loss. Let Russia be 
allowed to extend her protection to the Porte, because 
we may combine, at an hour’s notice with Austria, 
and occupy the Black Sea and the provinces—and 
Russia will have equal reason to thank our confidence 
in our strength at Constantinople as at Poros. Her 
object is anarchy in Turkey, and violent measures on 
our part, when unseasonable, only advance her ulti¬ 
mate ends. 


237 


CHAPTER XII. 

POLICY AND PROSPECTS OF THE NEW ADMINISTRA¬ 
TION OF GREECE. 

It is not only to the European stranger that Greece 
presents a confused and inexplicable mass of dis¬ 
cordant principles and interests ; it does so even to 
the diligent observer, who has made Greece alone, 
and under the influence of the revolution, his study. 
He sees a people, who loathe the memory of the past, 
who repudiate all their former institutions, and who 
call for the political institutions of England and 
America, being besides individually of industrious 
habits and docile dispositions. Yet, whenever those 
institutions are brought in detail to operate upon 
them, dissatisfaction, resistance, clamour, are instantly 
produced. What, then, is to be done with this fickle 
race—what form, what maxims of government are 
fitted for them, what measures will conciliate them, 
what powers coerce them ? Such have been the per¬ 
plexing considerations that have been incessantly 
forcing themselves on those interested in the solution 
of the question : such are the difficulties that will 
meet the new administration, and supposing it honest 
and sincere in its endeavours to settle the country, 


238 


POLICY AND PROSPECTS OF THE 


its position is one of imminent danger to itself—its 
first measures, and its system, of the deepest import¬ 
ance to Greece and to Europe. 

The men who surround king Otho, however high 
their standing, or enlarged their views, have been 
brought up in, and may be supposed attached to, a 
system of administration wholly opposed to that in 
which the Greeks have been educated, to which they 
are accustomed and unconsciouly attached. The new 
administration cannot be supposed to have either 
practical or theoretical acquaintance with that system; 
they will be perplexed and discouraged with the first 
aspect of the country : it is to be feared they will see 
things through a false medium; and they carry with 
them two treacherous supporters, money enough to 
make them worth deceiving, and troops enough to 
suggest the idea of compulsion. 

The principal object of the foregoing pages has 
been to develope the principles and practice of the 
antecedent political condition of the Greeks, to dis¬ 
tinguish the good from the bad of their former insti¬ 
tutions, to mark the contrast these present with those 
of Europe. Whether my views are correct or not, it 
will be allowed that this investigation can alone throw 
light on their present state, can explain their mixed 
aversion and attachment to their former administra¬ 
tion, their longing for, and resistance to, the adminis¬ 
trative maxims of Europe. Pursing the inquiry to 
its practical application, I shall now endeavour to 
point out what portion of their former organization 
they might profitably retain, and what they might pro¬ 
fitably imitate from Europe. 

I have seen, on two occasions, two portions of the 


NEW ADMINISTRATION OF GREECE. 239 

Greek population under apparently very dissimilar 
circumstances, but really under very similar ones—• 
passing from a state of the most miserable oppres¬ 
sion, to one of contentment and happiness ; in the 
one case, through the instrumentality of the grand 
vizir; in the other, of Count Capodistrias. The 
grand vizir subdued the Albanians, and relieved the 
rayas from the oppression of the local governors; the 
circumstances that accompanied the arrival of Capo¬ 
distrias in Greece, freed Greece from the Arabs, and 
his assumption of the reins of government relieved her 
from the devastations of the military chiefs. The pea¬ 
santry were equally devoted to the one and the other. 
The same expressions of enthusiastic gratitude, the 
same earnest prayers which I have heard uttered by the 
Greek peasant for Capodistrias in 1829, I have heard 
echoed by the Greek raya in 1831 for the grand vizir; 
and now, in his captivity, 1 doubt not, he has the 
prayers of tens of thousands of the Greeks of Rou- 
melie. Did the tears of the peasant follow the pall 
of Capodistrias ? Whence this strange contrast? 

The reforms of the grand vizir I have already 
mentioned; the changes which produced such happy 
and instantaneous effects, reduced themselves to this 
—the municipalities were left to themselves. Let us 
now turn to the organization of Capodistrias. The 
people were already relieved from the galling sump¬ 
tuary prohibitions and restrictions imposed by the 
Turks; his presence at once relieved them from the 
military despots ; but the municipalities were deprived 
of all participation in the collection of the revenue. 
Heavy export and import duties were imposed and 
re-exacted at every port, on internal, as well as ex- 


240 


POLICY ANI) PROSPECTS OF THE NEW 


ternal traffic: commerce and navigation were bur¬ 
dened not only with duties often proscriptive, but 
with regulations most capricious and vexatious. 
Still condemning and deploring the general maxims 
which Capodistrias thought fit to adopt, I cannot help 
admitting, that his administration, even such as it 
was, conferred very important benefits on the agri¬ 
cultural population, in relieving them from the anarchy 
that had previously prevailed, and his personal con¬ 
duct allowing it to have been as partial, arbitrary, 
and anti-national, as his most virulent enemies endea¬ 
vour to represent it, could never have alone excited 
the national antipathy of which he became the object; 
the blame was laid on him, and against individual 
measures, or persons, was directed the expression of 
the malaise produced by the system of centralization 
imported from Europe. 

On the other hand, that Capodistrias, whatever 
were his secret and collateral views, should have 
intentionally legislated for Greece in such a manner 
as to put his own authority in so hazardous a predi¬ 
cament, is a supposition not to be seriously enter¬ 
tained; any European administrator, inexperienced 
in eastern legislation, with the most undoubted honesty 
of purpose, would probably have committed the same 
fundamental error # which involved him in a struggle 

* The following incident might give colour to the suspicion that 
he went to Greece with a perfect acquaintance with the municipal 
organization, and a pre-determination to destroy it. Being ques¬ 
tioned by Prince C-, ex-minister of Russia, as to the causes to 

which I attributed the failure of Capodistrias in Greece, I was pro¬ 
ceeding to detail some of the reasons given in the text, placing in 
the first rank of errors the destruction of the existing municipalities. 


ADMINISTRATION OF GREECE. 


241 


with the nation, which he might have conducted more 
nobly, which they might have ended less vengefullv. 

Capodistrias judged of the Greeks by the Euro¬ 
peans ; he was imbued with Russian ideas of admi¬ 
nistration, as well as of authority; he had no notion of 
a revenue raised by any other means than by ordi¬ 
nances and by custom-houses; yet the Greeks, who 
had never known any of these, anxiously desired that 
their institutions should be assimilated to those of 
Europe. By their ignorance of political maxims and 
principles, Capodistrias was beguiled into the idea 
that he had no prejudices, and no experience of theirs 
to respect, and that the nation was a ball of wax, 

and as the most fatal of his omissions, the non-creation of municipali¬ 
ties, which would have prevented all his own faults, and all the 
national opposition. “ That was precisely,” observed the Prince, “ the 
policy he ought to have pursued; and l recollect perfectly a conver¬ 
sation I had with him on this very subject, one or two years before 
his nomination as president. I remarked to him, that the munici¬ 
palities of Turkey afforded the ready, the cheap, the easy, and 
efficient means of organizing Greece. Capodistrias made me one of 
the long answers in which he w as so expert, w 7 ith the view of effacing 
this conviction from my mind. I do not recollect now what it was 
he did say; but the impression made upon me at the time was, quil 
battoit la campagne 

Does not this throw light on the diplomacy of Russia? My 
informant could not know any thing of the municipalities of Turkey, 
or of the means of organizing Greece, except through the informa¬ 
tion possessed by the foreign bureau at St. Petersburg. Nothing, 
indeed, save this high intellectuality of her diplomacy could preserve 
the connexion and combine the functions of so inert and heteroge¬ 
neous a mass. Had her object been to organize Greece, how 
straightly would she have marched towards it! If the contrary, 
how efficacious is her opposition; and how easily could she detect 
Capodistrias, had he aimed at consolidating there his own power! 

R 


242 


POLICY AND PROSPECTS OF THE NEW 


ready to receive whatever form his plastic hand chose 
to give it; hence the folios of organic statutes and of 
ordinances; hence the impositions of customs and 
duties; but as there were no elements from which a 
regular custom-house establishment could be or¬ 
ganized, his only resource was farmers of revenue. 
Here was forced upon him, as it were, the ready 
means of bribery ; # and the people finding them¬ 
selves subject to a financial despotism, more intole¬ 
rable, as I really believe it to have been, than that of 
the Turks, instead of combining to force on the 
president a recurrence to the old financial system, 
attacked with virulence this or that abuse, this or that 
favourite. In these re-actions, the president, who 
unfortunately entered into every detail himself, saw 
nothing but insults put on his authority, indignities 
offered to his person—the passions of the individual 
complicated a very simple question—rendered despi¬ 
cable an important struggle; and the real point at 


* How far Capodistrias looked to the letting of revenue farms as 
means of corruption, may be gathered from the dependence in which 
the farmers were placed. It was enacted, that the government 
might, of its own spontaneous movement, seize the property of any 
individual owing money, or who might come afterwards to owe 
money to the government, on the mere pretence that he might not be 
able to pay his debt when due—obligations of the government to 
him were not to be reckoned—the property seized to be valued by 
arbitrators (whether in part, or in whole, appointed by government, 
I have forgotten). The property to he put up to auction at this valua¬ 
tion , within five days of the seizure , and if not bought , to be offered 
for five successive days , at a reduction each day office per cent. ; at 
this last reduction , the government to take it. Was ever law like 
this 9 Who but a devoted creature of the president could venture to 
be a farmer? 


ADMINISTRATION OP GREECE. 


243 


issue has been quite lost sight of, in its deplorable 
consequences of foreign and domestic violence and 
intrigue. Will the present government profit by 
this experience? I fear not, because its pre-con- 
ceived notions, its ignorance of eastern habits, and 
its western prejudices, will lead it into the fatal error 
of comparing the popular resistance against Capodis- 
trias—to popular commotions in Germany, for in¬ 
stance : the difference is great, and it lies in a nut¬ 
shell; these are attempts to destroy—those to main¬ 
tain existing institutions. 

But if the new administration makes proper use of 
the experience of Capodistrias, it may derive from it 
not only important lessons, but valuable assistance. 
The errors to be avoided are his custom-house and 
police system, the letting the revenue to farmers, and 
his mania for legislating among a people not only 
unaccustomed, but perfectly hostile to such restraints. 
Public approbation (which, too readily bestowed, 
might seriously mislead,) will now cautiously be given 
to a European government, by reason of the expe¬ 
rience which the nation has acquired. It had suffered 
from Turkish barbarism, from domestic anarchy; 
Capodistrias brought it acquainted with the tyranny 
of law. Thus political intelligence has been increased, 
and while they have been rendered more capable of 
detecting the errors of government, they have been 
taught, by a succession of every species of mis¬ 
fortune, to prize tranquillity. 

Capodistrias organized a central administration : 
the bureaucracy was corrupt, ridiculously extensive ; 
still, however, it was not without merit, and its rem¬ 
nants may be of service. The overwhelming claims 

r 2 


244 


POLICY AND PROSPECTS OP THE NEW 


which would be poured in on the new government, 
may be met by the inquiries and examinations of 
accounts instituted under Capodistrias—the most im¬ 
portant and only valuable financial service he ren¬ 
dered. When the decisions then taken are adopted 
by the new authority, it will incur, even if they are 
unpopular, but a small portion of the blame; and if it 
reduces the large balances allowed to the special par¬ 
tisans of the late president, no one will gainsay the 
reduction; in the meantime, it is relieved from the 
necessity of bestowing all its attention, and staking 
its popularity on so embarrassing an investigation. 

If the government wishes to be powerful, it will 
destroy the power of the capitani and primates—not, 
indeed, destroy what they have not; but it must not 
be seduced into grantingthem power. The governor 
of a province ought not to be a native of that province 
—and no condition should be placed to the election 
to any office, so as to restrict it to those families who 
have rendered the office of primate hereditary ; nei¬ 
ther, of course, should they be excluded from the 
offices which public confidence would bestow upon 
them : but they can only be made faithful to the prince, 
by being watched by the people. 

It is the people alone who will heartily support 
King Otho; but only on the condition of his preserv¬ 
ing to them their local municipalities, and protecting 
them against the encroachments of the upstart aristo¬ 
cracy. May the good genius of Greece impress this 
truth on the minds of his counsellors ! 

A great deal has been said about forcing a mo¬ 
narchy on a people whose aspirations were for a 
republican government. A few Europeans, or a few 


ADMINISTRATION OF GREECE. 


245 


Greeks, educated in Europe, have given rise to the 
supposition. I can confidently affirm, that the mass 
of Greeks never entertained such an idea; their 
aspirations were to be included in the European 
family, and not only as a bond of that union, and to 
put an end to internal broils, but also as a national 
honour, they sought to be governed by a prince 
belonging to some royal house—true, that feeling 
grew under the fostering hope that Leopold would 
have been the man. It has been said, and truly said, 
that the habits, the dispositions, and the topography 
of Greece, were essentially republican ; but it is the 
republicanism of village autonomies, too weak to 
stand alone, and requiring the support of a central 
authority. In Europe, the evils that hatch revo¬ 
lution, spring almost always from laws and regula¬ 
tions promulgated in the prince’s name, and enforced 
by his authority; against him, therefore, popular ven¬ 
geance, when aroused, is directed ; and in the minds 
of many enlightened men, the evils of centralization 
are laid to the account of monarchy. But under the 
Mussulman system, the local ruler, or ayan, is the 
oppressor; and the central government only inter¬ 
feres to wreak its vengeance on the petty despot, 
and really never does become the instrument of direct 
wrong to the raya. How, then, should the Greek 
peasant, accustomed to respect, and to hold in vene¬ 
ration the authority of the Turkish sultan, be indis¬ 
posed to submit to a Christian king? How should a 
people who only dread, who have only suffered from 
the usurped and abused authority of delegates, wish 
to see political power shared among these very men 
who interfered with their local administrations? If 


24() POLICY AND PROSPECTS OF THE NEW 

Otho fails to conciliate the affections of the Greeks, 
it will not be in consequence of his title; indeed, so 
glad will they be of boasting of a European prince to 
the Turks, and of possessing one central point of 
authority and administration among themselves, that 
much will be borne with, much will be forgiven, save 
and except always, interferences with the munici¬ 
palities, or the presence of a tax-gatherer. 

The account I have given of the administrative 
reforms, which conciliated the affections of the Greeks 
to the Turkish authority, will, of itself, explain the 
measures the new administration has to adopt, which 
are as follows:—provincial governors; a judiciary 
establishment adopting the pandects of Justinian 
already in use; the apportioning the revenue by dis¬ 
trict, according to a general cadastre, and leaving its 
assessment and collection entirely to the municipal 
bodies, as also all local administration, the making of 
roads, building of bridges, churches, schools, appoint¬ 
ment of priests, schoolmasters. The municipalities are 
the very rudiments of representation, and the pri¬ 
mates of a certain number of communities, or of a 
certain district, might choose deputies to assemble as 
a provincial council. # The executive will receive 

* In the Turkish districts the villages were united municipally, or 
for financial purposes, by threes or fours, into nahies; these were 
united judicially into cazas, under a cadi; these were again united 
civilly into livas, under a candjac-bey. The British villages (trefs) 
were united by fours for jurisdiction ; twelve of these, or fifty 
trefs, formed a commot, and two of these a cantred. In Spain 
and Portugal, where the municipalities were a twofold inheritance, 
from the customs of the Moors and the law of the Romans, and 
where they displayed greater vigour in the days of their prosperity 
than in any other portion of Europe, since there, they retained their 


ADMINISTRATION OF GREECE. 


247 


the surplus revenue of the provinces after the local 
expenses are defrayed, without charges or trouble in 
collecting; its functions will be restricted to main¬ 
taining order and general police, the appointing of 
provincial governors, the organization of troops, and 
the creation of a little marine, the care of the for¬ 
tresses, foreign commerce, and foreign relations ; but 
by judicious suggestions, without any assumption of 
authority, it may be the means of introducing im¬ 
proved cultivation and irrigation, normal schools, an 
administration of the forests, an extension of commu¬ 
nications, the repair and creation of ports and har¬ 
bours, &c.; it will, indeed, be all powerful for good. 

The expenditure would thus be reduced to a mere 
trifle. In the naval and military departments some 
expense would be necessary, not in the number of 
men to be kept on foot or vessels afloat,^ but in 

essentially agricultural character,—we find the same sub-divisions 
of municipal districts. The smallest village of Portugal had its mu¬ 
nicipality, and though there was no general system, each municipal 
district had a council, representing it. 

* Capodistrias presented the naval and military accounts to the 
congress at Argos, from his arrival up to the end of June 1829. The 
items w r ere as follows : 

Irregulars* .... £155,396 

Regulars f .... 23,898 


* The calculation in this department was erroneous, and the pub¬ 
lication of this sum caused an insurrection, as the soldiers declared 
the third of it had never reached them. The establishment then 
exceeded 10,000 men. 
f Consisting of 

Infantry, 3 battalions of 300 effective men. 

Artillery, 1 do. do. 

Cavalry, 2 squadrons 100 do. 
and 84 Officers. 



248 POLICY AMD PROSPECTS OF THE NEW 

elementary schools for officers, and in preparing* ma¬ 
terials and arsenals. The passes of Macronoros, of 
Caracos, of Patragic, Tragovouno, and CEta, require 
some fortification, as also the point of Anactorium, 
and the north-west extremity of the Negropont. 
These and the principal fortresses* have to be kept 
up. The clergy are supported by certain fees and 
voluntary contributions. The monasteries possess 
considerable property : one of the first acts of the 
revolution was to prohibit all persons from taking 
the vows, so that the monks have dwindled away. 
Capodistrias had appropriated some of the monastic 
possessions to the support of schools, and the general 
feeling is that they should be so applied. The judi¬ 
ciary establishment may be maintained at a very 
trifling cost, and the government has no further ex¬ 
penses save la Maison du Rob If it adopts the 
municipal principle, it embarrasses itself with no 
custom-house officers or tax-gatherers whatever, and it 


Brought over 

. £179,294 

Fortresses 

4,274 

Navy .... 

29,858 

Central School 

1,030 

Office expenses 

453 

Total for seventeen months 

. £214,909 

Or say per annum 

. £150,000 


Under Capodistrias the War department absorbed three-fifths of 
the revenue—accounted for. 

* In the Morea, Palamide, Napoli de Malvosia, Acrocorintho, 
Navarino, Modon, and castle of Morea. In Roumelie, castle of 
Roumelie, Vonizza, Zeitouni, and Negropont. Lepanto, Coron, 
Patrass, Athens, &c. are of no importance as fortifications. 








ADMINISTRATION OF GREECE. 249 

will be relieved from all concern in local affairs. It 
has little to do with foreign powers—nothing with 
foreign commerce, save to leave it to itself; and for 
its military and civil, its judiciary and central ad¬ 
ministration, a quarter of a million yearly seems 
amply sufficient. 

The monarchy of Greece must rest on these three 
principles — municipal institutions, direct taxation, 
and perfect freedom of commerce ; and yet these are 
not three but one principle, under a three-fold cha¬ 
racter ; each as a principle leading to the other two 
as consequences, and indivisible in their utility and 
their operation. 

If the revenue of Greece is to be raised indirectly, 
a custom-house system and a preventive service must 
be organized. I need hardly enter into detail, to 
show the utter impracticability of barricading the 
coasts of such a country—serrated with gulfs, bays, 
and creeks, intersected with mountain ranges; fre¬ 
quent calms at sea, when the light mysticos, with 
their sweeps, will defy pursuit—with the neighbour¬ 
hood of Candia, the Ionian Islands, and Turkey, the 
example of her free trade, and the convenient vicinity 
of islands which have been piratical, and now would 
become smuggling stations. There are other con¬ 
siderations which must be urged against the custom¬ 
house plan, namely, the utility to herself of leaving 
her commerce and navigation entirely unshackled; 
the necessity of doing so, if she wishes to realize the 
high commercial destinies that the habits of her popu¬ 
lation and her admirable position point out as hers. 
But I must confess that I trust more to the practical 
impossibility of enforcing the injurious system, than 


250 POLICY AND PROSPECTS OF THE NEW 

to the arguments that might be adduced in favour of 
the other. But supposing that by overwhelming 
military power, and at an enormous expense, she 
could establish custom-house cordons, what would be 
the consequence? 1st. The increase of expenditure; 
2d. The decrease of her commerce; 3d. The resistance 
to government which indirect taxation must produce, 
but in tenfold force in Greece, where they have been for 
centuries accustomed to buy the produce of all parts 
of the world at the lowest price. The indirect system 
will then not disguise taxation, while it misplaces the 
burdens and doubles the necessities of the state, and 
will cause universal irritation, without obtaining the 
support of interests and prejudices grown up under 
its influence. 4th. Law will cease to be respected. 
Opinion has hitherto stood in place of law; and law, 
to be enforced and respected, must now coincide with 
opinion. Prostitute the law to financial purposes— 
create new crimes, and visit them with the penalties 
scarcely awarded to the worst injuries inflicted on 
society, and law and opinion will be brought into 
direct collision. This is a momentous consideration 
for a prince who goes to govern a people, as it is 
supposed in Europe, of pirates and bandits, with 
four thousand German bayonets. In practice and in 
principle so numerous are the objections to the Euro¬ 
pean commercial system, so great are the temptations 
to interference, for men carrying thither European 
notions of administration, who will be at first en¬ 
vironed with respect, and kneeled to with submission, 
that I cannot see how he can escape falling into 
serious errors; and so difficult is it for the self-love 
of such a government to retrace any false step, that. 


ADMINISTRATION OF GREECE. 


251 


without great faith in prophecy, I will only give 
Greece five years to find its way back to the Turkish 
dominion, if the indirect system of taxation is at¬ 
tempted. 

Supposing it granted that the revenue is not to be 
raised from commerce, you must lay it on land and 
property; but if the difficulties of organizing a 
custom-house system is great, they will be greater in 
organizing a body of collectors, who will have to 
assess as well as collect: the expense would be 
ruinous; the extortion they would be guilty of would 
fall on the government, and a struggle be commenced, 
which it is all important to crush in the very bud. 
Will the government, then, have recourse to fanners 
of revenue? 1 trust it will be deterred from that 
measure by the example of Capodistrias. How then 
can its revenue be raised, without injustice, without 
involving the government in continual struggles, and 
rendering it obnoxious to the accusation of partiality 
and injustice, and with the least possible expense? 
I answer, by the municipal bodies. They have been 
disorganized in Greece, trampled on and perverted; 
but if the government carefully abstains from all 
legislation on the subject—imposes the tribute, and 
arbitrarily demands its payments—I again repeat, 
without giving any instructions as to the mode of 
collection, things will find their level, the munici¬ 
palities will revive, by the same cause that originally 
produced them. Legislation on the subject might 
seriously injure, and could not improve them; and 
on their restoration, I feel the deepest conviction 
that the prosperity, nay, the independent existence 


252 POLICY AND PROSPECTS OF THE NEW 


of Greece and the authority of her young sovereign 
depend.* 

Again: to settle Greece permanently, her people 
must have an interest and a voice in her administra¬ 
tion. Is it to the capitani and primates that that 
authority is to be extended? Most certainly not. 
There is little difference in the political intelligence of 
the hind and of his master, and the whole mass of the 
people must feel the independence it, and it alone, has 
struggled for. It cannot act on the central govern¬ 
ment : give it a voice in the municipalities—let its in- 

* The expulsion of Don Pedro from the Brazils, when rightly 
read, is a lesson and a warning to King Otho. Don John, previous 
to his emigration to America in 1807, applied to M. Sarmento, one 
of the most eminent lawyers of Portugal, for counsel on the line of 
policy he ought to adopt on arriving in the Brazils; the answer was 
short and comprehensive—“that he should throw himself entirely on 
the municipalities for the administration of the country, and trust to 
them for providing for the expenses incurred by the exigencies of 
the times, and the removal of the royal family.” Don John feared 
this might appear too great a concession to popular opinion. Money 
was necessary; he could only raise it by ordinances: to stifle dis¬ 
content, he had to grant and create pensions and places—to overawe 
it, to increase the army. The result has been public debt, and enmity 
placed between the house of Braganza and the people that received 
it with open arms. The shouts of loyalty of 1807 became invocations 
of a republic in 1817, and in 1821 the country was ready to break 
into open revolution on the first news of the insurrectionary move¬ 
ments in Portugal; and now Don Pedro, after granting a constitu¬ 
tion, is an outcast, because Don John thought that allowing the 
municipalities to manage their own affairs would curtail the intrigues 
of his favourites. The above advice, as the opinion here expressed 
of its neglect on the fortunes of Don Pedro, 1 give on the authority 
of M. Sarmento (Fils), late Portuguese minister, and equally distin¬ 
guished as a jurisconsult, patriot, and diplomatist. 


ADMINISTRATION OF GREECE. 


253 


fluence be felt on the local administration—direct the 
public attention to the erection of schools, the con¬ 
struction of bridges, &c.—give it the election of all 
its officers, the revision and controul of expenditure, 
the fixation of assessments—let it organize as it 
chooses its forms, its elections, its courts ; let the 
government only see that the chiefs do not interfere, 
and the care and wisdom of the government will be 
repaid by the most unbounded devotion, and sup¬ 
ported by the jealous control the municipalities will 
exercise, over the only class of men who have hitherto 
profited by anarchy, and who alone can have any wish 
for its recurrence. 

Thus, then, the impossibility of guarding the coasts, 
makes it necessary to raise the revenue by direct 
taxation, which can only be advantageously done by 
municipal bodies. But the ease of raising the revenue 
directly, renders it unnecessary to burden commerce. 
The advantages of leaving commerce unshackled, 
points out taxation on property; the expense of col¬ 
lecting points out the municipalities: thus are the 
three principles inseparably connected, without super¬ 
fluity, without deficiency, forming a complete admi¬ 
nistrative system, to be wholly rejected or uncom¬ 
promisingly adopted.* 


4 Besides, there are the public possessions and the national lands, 
for which see Appendix. The disposal of these lands is a momentous 
question, and deeply should 1 regret to see the European proprietary 
system introduced. The government has money at its disposal, let 
these rich lands be located, like the Chefalo-Choria of Turkey—let 
it advance small loans, even exacting large interest — and then 
let these public lands be assessed higher than the private property. 


254 POLICY AND PROSPECTS OF THE NEW 

But I have been arguing the question as if the 
new administration could do with Greece in all 
things as it thought fit, without consulting the wishes 
of the people, or the opinions of the European go¬ 
vernments, on whose guaranteeship it rests. J have 
been merely pointing out the policy it must adopt to 
secure a despotic existence, without reference to 
national habits, prejudices, opinion, or influence. 
But Otho is not a feudal sovereign; he has no here¬ 
ditary right or prescriptive prerogative—no historic 
family associations or influential connexion ; the name 
of king is guarded round by no conservative recol¬ 
lections, nor is his throne encircled by victorious 
legions. Are the measures, then, which would be 
imperative on a conqueror, to be neglected by an 
elected sovereign ? And what are those measures ? 
Experimental essays, or exotic institutions ? No : 
the preservation of administrative institutions, which 
might almost be called domestic—which have formed 
the habits of the nation and the character of the in¬ 
dividual, and which cannot be denied without a dan¬ 
gerous attempt at altering not only the political 
character of the country, but the moral character of 
the man. 

The municipalities of Greece may be looked on as 
little republics, which are the objects of more than 
republican attachment with the people, but which are 
destitute of republican turbulence. To these institu¬ 
tions their habits, experience, and affections are at- 

Oapodistrias exacted three-tenths of the produce from the public lands 
and one from the private. But the tribute must of course be com¬ 
muted for a fixed money assessment. 


ADMINISTRATION OP GREECE. 


255 


tached, with all the energy of mountaineers. Even 
Napoleon, in his thorough disregard for the moral 
part of man, respected the affections of the only 
system in Europe to be compared with that of Greece, 
the small republics of Switzerland; and in the unde¬ 
viating uniformity of his gigantic organization, al¬ 
lowed them to stand the only exception; he would 
“ not interfere with the traditional customs of the 
small republics which had been the cradle of Swiss 
liberty, and which constituted the principal title of 
Switzerland to the sympathy of Europe.” Could he 
have used other words in speaking of Greece? But 
more extraordinary, and almost prophetic, are the 
words which follow: “ Destroy those free primitive 
commonwealths, and you become a mere common 
people, with no claim for escaping the whirlpool of 
European politics. # 

It has ever been objected to Greece that she is 
destitute of patriotism, that she has no talisman of 
Faterland. Whence then her revolution ? She may 
be destitute of that patriotism which thrills at a 
country’s geographical name, but she replaces it 
by the most devoted attachment to locality and to 
race ; (to ytvog,) destroy that local attachment and in¬ 
terest, by centralising the administration, you replace 
it by no sudden creation of national patriotism; but 
leave undisturbed the local administrations, and these 

* It must be observed, that these were not arguments against 
annihilating Swiss independence, or for annexing these common? 
wealths to the empire, but against subjecting them to the common 
rule of election for local magistrates and representatives in the cen¬ 
tralized republic at Berne. 


256 POLICY AND PROSPECTS OF THE NEW 

local affections will soon ascend with political power 
from the part to the whole. 

The Hellenic monarchy will be a federation, not a 
unit of which the smaller bodies politic are the frac¬ 
tions, but a multiple of which these are the inte¬ 
gers ; these, while to a certain degree they may be 
strangers to each other, and separate in jurisdiction, 
will be equally submissive to and equally dependent 
on the central authority.* 

But there is still a very important question to be 
examined—the obligations of Greece to Europe. The 
debt of gratitude she owes can only be repaid by 
prudent legislation, by raising her political resources, 
and preparing herself for supporting vigorously the 
Porte ; with whom, I feel confident in saying, her 
interests in every point most strikingly coincide, and 
to whose institutions hers, if judiciously framed, will 
be very much assimilated — if that power cannot 
be renovated, she must be fit to supply its place. 
But there is a point of more immediate and direct 
importance than these ulterior political views, to settle 
between Greece and Europe, and England in par¬ 
ticular. To what rate of customs is our commerce to 
be subjected ? If to the Turkish three per cent., this 
alone decides the whole financial system of Greece. 
That Greece will be allowed to concoct a tariff, while 
our most persevering efforts are directed to the in¬ 
troduction of free trade, wherever it does not exist, 
and amongst our rivals, does not seem at all likely 

* Such are nearly the expressions used by Mr. Palgrave, in de¬ 
scribing the Teutonic Monarchies —Rise and Progress of the Com¬ 
monwealth, p. 63. 


COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY, 


257 


We must not allow her to extinguish all her own 
commercial prospects, nor can we resigu the all- 
important free-trade system which Turkey entitled us 
to, to a new power, of which we ourselves have been 
the principal architects. What were the stipulations 
which we made with the new republics that once be¬ 
longed to Spain, whose struggles we had not counte¬ 
nanced, whose independence we had neither fought 
for nor guaranteed, and with whose internal adminis¬ 
tration we had never interfered? Our treaties with 
them stipulate that u the subjects of his Britannic 
Majesty shall on no account or pretext whatever be 
disturbed or molested in the peaceful possession or 
exercise of whatever rights, privileges, and immu¬ 
nities they have at any time enjoyed.” # Now, 
though we have submitted to the tariff of Mexico, as 
we did to that of Spain, Greece cannot pretend to 
substitute her tariff for that of Turkey. The perfect 
freedom of commerce-)-—the right to which in Greece 
we inherit from Turkey, is one of those immunities 
which we can resign on no account or pretext what¬ 
ever ; it is a golden privilege which we never can 
abandon. 

Now that Greece has assumed a definite and sub¬ 
stantial form, she can afford to discard the sympathies 
and the classical associations that have contributed 
so much to her importance. It is no longer her soil, 
her costume, her language, and her ruins, that in¬ 
terest ; it is not even the emancipation of the clusters 
of the Egean or the mountains of Peloponessus, that 

* Treaty with Mexico, Dec. 26, 1826. 

f The nominal three per cent, is but equivalent to light port dues, 
the anchorage under 8c?. per vessel! 

S 


258 COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY. 

is the reward of one of the most noble and disin¬ 
terested of diplomatic achievements: it is the poli¬ 
tical regeneration of the East that we have com¬ 
menced—it is the emancipation of eastern commerce 
that we have effected. Greece owes herself to the 
furtherance of these two grand and philanthropic 
objects. 

The political independence of the Greeks will 
elevate the raya of Turkey, and force the reorgani¬ 
zation of that country. The light craft of Greece will 
frequent every creek of the Levant and the Euxine; 
her merchants, combining local experience and infor¬ 
mation with European connexion and knowledge, 
and endowed now with political independence, will 
spread themselves over the whole surface of Turkey— 
supply their wants, excite their taste, take off their 
surplus produce, and, increasing their prosperity, 
augment their demands. Greece will become one 
great mart, where the manufactures of England will 
be distributed to the surrounding districts of Europe, 
Asia, and Africa, and to which the returns from these 
countries will be directed: she will be one free port, 
to link together the commerce of the East and of the 
West.* 

This mission seems particularly reserved to the 

* It was little to be expected that commerce should even have 
begun as yet to put forth its feelers in Greece, considering the 
constant state of agitation the country has been in. Even during 
the rule of Capodistrias little progress was to be expected, since he 
took every means of spreading the idea of insecurity in Greece, 
and even went so far as to menace with unsuppressed anger, foreign 
merchants disposed to settle in the country! yet in 1831 ships of all 
nations, entered and cleared at the single port of ruined Patras, 
amounted to 938. Tonnage 53,951. 


COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY. 


259 


Greek race; by conquest of arms they had almost 
succeeded two thousand years ago—by arts, about one 
thousand years ago, they had subdued the victorious 
Saracens, and the philosopher of that age, might have 
confidently looked forward, from the union of Arabic 
legislation and Greek science, to the extinction of the 
corresponding barbarism, that in their consequences 
have so long kept distinct and separate Europe from 
Asia, and have made the one to the other as if it were 
an empty space on the earth's surface. The torrent 
from Tartary, and the dull inertness of the Turkish 
despotism, has retarded, during this long period, the 
progress of instruction in the precocious East, from 
corresponding with that of the West. But now, under 
very different circumstances, the twice almost achiev¬ 
ed conquest of Greece bids fair to be realized—not 
by arms, not by science, but by the first benefactor, 
the first instructor of men and nations—commerce. 
The views of Alexander and his policy appear to 
to have been directed to cementing by commerce the 
conquest of his arms. That most wonderful man 
seems alone among the great of antiquity, to have 
based political combinations on the wants and in¬ 
terests of men. The founding of Alexandria—the 
eagle glance which embraced all the commercial ad¬ 
vantages of the position of Troas, his statistical re¬ 
searches, and the exploration of the rivers and coasts 
of India, are mere indications of profound concep¬ 
tions, that found no interpreter. His main object of 
uniting Europe and Asia, may be clearly seen by 
one of many magnificent projects found after his death 
on his tablets, and which has unhappily been the only 
one preserved, namely, to build several new cities in 

s 2 


200 COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY. 

Asia to people with Europeans, and in Europe to 
people with Asiatics ; “ that by intermarriages and ex¬ 
changes of good offices, the inhabitants of these two 
great continents might be gradually united by similar 
opinions and attached by mutual affections.* 

This grand design presents itself now no longer in 
records of antiquity, not in dim and distant prospect, 
to be reached over the ruins of fixed habits, preju¬ 
dices, and institutions. The cynic despotism of the 
descendants of the hordes, who, from the Caspian 
to the Isthmus of Suez, barred the road to India, is 
now broken up; on every side, from Georgia to Mo¬ 
rocco, new principles are in action, while Europe is 
in a situation to take advantage of the changed cir¬ 
cumstances, possessing intelligence united with power, 
such as no previous epoch has ever known ; wise 
enough to understand that her power over these tribes 
and nations must not rest on violence and conquest, 
but on the exchange of mutual advantages, and for¬ 
tunately possessing in her vast manufacturing re¬ 
sources, the means of cementing that union, and of 
establishing that power by the indissoluble bonds of 
mutual interests. 

How deeply is it to be regretted, that traffic's fer¬ 
tilizing course between India and our own country, 
should have been so long uselessly driven through 
the Atlantic and the Indian ocean. Let us hope 
that the change of circumstances at home and in the 
East, will bring back that intercourse to its more direct 
and natural route; no measure could so essentially 
contribute to the political reorganization of the inter¬ 
vening countries, of which commercial prosperity is 
* Diod. Sec. lib. xviii. c. 4. 


COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY. 


261 


a consequence. The communication through the Red 
Sea seems on the point of being put to the test of 
practice, and an enterprizing and distinguished officer 
has lately explored the course of the Euphrates, from 
the point nearest to Scanderoon to the Persian Gulf. 
Under these circumstances, of what importance is it 
to us to have a free port such as Greece, in such a 
position, and such a body of carriers, merchants, and 
pedlars, as the Greeks ? The list of the countries 
which have acquired the taste for our manufactures, 
and which are only prevented from being amply sup¬ 
plied with them by the high charges of commerce, or 
the absence of merchants, or the restrictions of their 
own governments, and which are more or less within 
reach of Greece, and of the competition and dexterity 
of her merchants, is more eloquent than arguments, 
and needs to be supported by none. Morocco and 
the Barbary coast, Central Africa, Egypt, the Be¬ 
douin and Magrybeen Arabs; Syria, Damascus, 
Bagdad, the whole of Asia Minor, Diarbekir, Persia, 
Georgia, Circassia, the Kouban, Southern Russia, 
and through it a great portion of the empire ; Bessa¬ 
rabia, Galicia, Moldavia, Wallachia, Bulgaria, 
Servia, Bosnia, Albania, &c., and Hungary. To lend 
her aid to these objects and to benefit herself in their 
furtherance, Greece must possess, as a necessary 
qualification, unlimited freedom of commerce. 

But the fabric of her own future greatness, and her 
importance to us, is a visionary dream, unless a foun¬ 
dation fit for its support be now laid; and deeply 
does it interest us to examine the soundness of the 
materials and the skill of the workmen; if they com- 


262 


COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY. 


mit errors, the blame and the loss will equally and 
deservedly fall upon us. 

Greece has to be delivered from military despot¬ 
ism, from the arrogance of an upstart oligarchy, from 
their oppression and their factions; she has to be re¬ 
lieved from Capodistrias’ broken shackles of customs 
and police. The power of the chiefs can only be 
broken, the affection of the people only conciliated, 
the errors of Capodistrias only obliterated, by the res¬ 
toration of the municipalities. The only system ap¬ 
proved by practice and experience, that is sufficiently 
economical for the finances of Greece, that is suffi¬ 
ciently simple for her inexperienced administration, 
that is sufficiently acceptable to the nation, for the 
weaknes of that administration to enforce :—the only 
system that can allow her commercial capabilities to 
develope themselves, that can reconcile and excite 
without confounding the local and parcelled affections 
and interests of the Greeks; and, in fine, the only 
system which, by simplifying the central government 
and strengthening the local interests can arrest the 
demoralizing progress of northern intrigue, is that 
which is summed up in municipalities, direct taxation, 
and freedom of commerce. 

Here is the broad and Arab foundation which must 
be religiously respected ; on this you may rear the 
higher political combinations, which in Europe have 
preceded the foundation. We have built downwards ; 
hence the struggle of interest which Greece, with mo¬ 
derate prudence, may entirely escape. Having seen 
the Greeks as patriots, and as bandits, as pirates, and 
soldiers—having seen them eat the bread of industry, 
of chicane, and of violence—having visited every 


COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF TURKEY. 


263 


portion of ancient or modern Greece, from the 
borders of Pannonia, Dacia, and Illyria, to the 
southern shores of Crete, I may be entitled, as far at 
least as experience goes, to hazard one concluding 
opinion, which is, that the Greeks are the easiest peo¬ 
ple in the world to lead and the most difficult to drive ; 
that amidst all their sectional varieties, two main 
springs are ever in action—the desire of instruction 
and the love of gain. 



APPENDIX. 
















lull tD£ 

!> b di!T 

! )6il iud 


- 















APPENDIX. 


267 


No. I. 

Estimate of cost price of silk in Turkey , made in a 
village of Chalcidice, in 1831. Seepage 181. 

Twenty large mulberry trees produced 6000 okes 
of leaves—from these 75 okes of cocoons were ob¬ 
tained, which were reeled into six okes of silk. I 
cannot vouch for the exact weight of the leaves, or 
the cocoons, but I can answer for twenty trees having- 
produced 15 lbs. of coarse silk. The trees were 
planted in a row, on a high bank of a rivulet, in a 
beautiful exposure, looking on the Toronaic Gulph. 
They did not injure the crop of the surrounding soil, 
but had they occupied the soil exclusively, they would 
have taken up one stremma, or one third of an acal. 
They were some of the finest mulberries I have ever 
seen, of the white variety, wild, having a mixture of 
round and deeply serrated leaves. The leaves were ga¬ 
thered by cutting the yearly shoots close to the crown 
of the stem, five feet from the ground, which preserves 
the leaves better, and allows the worms to feed in a 
more cleanly manner, and gives them more air than 
when the leaves are stripped off. The partial outlay 
of money amounted to 15s., of which 11 was a tax on 
the trees, and the produce was sold in the market of 
Salonica, at 60 piastres the oke, or 4/. 18s, for the 
15 lbs. The labour of the family supplied the rest; 
but calculating that labour at the wages they might 


268 


APPENDIX. 


have received if hired, and adding to that the profit 
on the trees, or, better still, on the land they occupy, 
we may come to the real price at which silk can be 
produced were the country relieved from violence, 
illegal taxation, and the mercantile monopolies of the 
jews and bankers. 


Cost of production. 
Piastres. 

Two men's hire for a month, at 1 piastre per day, for 

gathering leaves, and attending worms 

Hire for a tileuse, 15 days, 15 piastres; attendant girl 
10 prs.; hire of reel and caldron, 15 prs.; transport 
of fuel for reeling, 5 prs.; other attendance, ex¬ 

60 

penses, risks, &c.; 15 piastres, in all 

60 

Rent of one stremma equal to 4/. per acre) 

100 

Tax of government, two piastres per tree 

40 

260 

About 4s. per lb. 


This silk sold at 60 piastres an oke, or 6s. a pound, 
while a small quantity that was reeled in the Pied¬ 
montese manner, was selling for 110 piastres an oke, or 
1 Is. 6d. per lb.; yet the additional expense of reeling 
and loss in the Piedmontese manner could not exceed 
Is. 6d. per lb. The expense of the machine 27s. 

The calculation I have made of labour will appear 
exceedingly low, but it was the price at the time 
amongst the villagers. At Salonica for good work¬ 
people it was double, but this refers only to the reel¬ 
ing, which does not cost above 6d. a pound. In 
France it costs 2s. Id. The price of labour will, no 
doubt, rise with the demand, but this is a labour that 
the women can perform, and fills up the intervals of 


APPENDIX. 


269 


other work, and the objections to cottage education, 
which are so strong in France, do not hold in Turkey. 

In this calculation I have allowed a liberal remune¬ 
rating price, and a price which the producer never at 
present obtains ; for when the banker has not fore¬ 
stalled the produce, the governor often forces it from 
the peasant at an arbitrarily fixed price. I have seen 
it myself, though this is an extreme case, taken at 
one-third of the calculation I have made. 

There is a local tax of from one-sixth to one-third 
of the produce, and a duty of seven piastres and a 
half per tehee on exportation, which, if maintained, 
render nugatory all attempts at opening this new and 
important branch of commerce. Supposing these im¬ 
positions withdrawn, the expenses that would be 
incurred to bring the silk into the English market 
would be as follows :— 


Cost of production as above, per lb. 

Additional expense of reeling in the Piedmontese man¬ 
ner, if introduced throughout the country 
Average expense of transport .... 

Brokerage, commission, four prs. per teffee 
Warehousing, packing, and cases, porterage, ship¬ 
ping, 8t,c. ....... 

Freight, insurance, and selling charges in England . 
On this the government has already received, in tbe 
form of a tax on the mulberry trees, lOri. but sup¬ 
posing it to exact 10 per cent, export duty 


£ s. d. 

0 4 0 

0 1 6 
0 0 21 
0 0 3 

0 0 3 
0 0 31 


0 0 6 


So that if it removes the causes of individual mono¬ 
polies, and abstains from illegal exactions, the silk 
of Turkey may be disposed of, reeled in the Pied¬ 
montese manner, in the London market, at per lb. £0 7 0 

The same silk selling at present at 22s. '- 




270 


APPENDIX, 


No. II. 

Population of European Turkey. Seepage 150. 

I have stated, in round numbers, the population of 
European Turkey and Greece, at twelve millions. As 
guesses on this subject are so exceedingly vague and 
contradictory, (varying from seven to twenty-two 
millions,) I should hardly have thought it worth while 
giving any reasons for fixing on the above, had not 
Mr. Gordon, reckoned it at eight millions. 

Although the destruction of life and property since 
1812, by plague and warfare, has been frightful in 
the southern regions, and within the sphere of the 
influence of the Greek revolution, it is not so in the 
northern regions, and even in those districts which 
have most suffered, the depopulation and devastation 
is often greater in appearance than in reality. In such 
times men avoid observation, villages are displaced 
from the tracts frequented by troops, and cultivation 
flies the public routes; but it has often occurred to 
me, when looking in despair around for a village to 
pass the night, and being able to discover none, that 
a peasant finding me to be a Frank, would lead me to 
one hard by, screened by the brow of a hill, or nestled 
in the bottom of a vale, and without a patch of culti¬ 
vated ground visible from the road. 


APPENDIX. 


271 


The northern populations, however, can scarcely 
be said to have suffered from war. They are almost 
wholly of Sclavonic origin, and occupy an immense 
tract of country, extending east and west from the 
Adriatic to the Euxine, and from the 41st degree of 
latitude to the south, to the Danube, and the Save 
to the north. This territory is very little known to 
Europeans, who rarely traverse it, and then only in 
two directions, and its population and fertility is 
estimated by the barren and trodden-down extremity 
of Thrace. Yet many portions of this region which, 
comprises above 120,000 square miles, struck me as 
being more populous than France.^ 

Previous to the last Russian war, the Porte enter¬ 
tained the most extravagant notions as to the popu¬ 
lation of the country. It trusted to its old registers, 
or admitted unscrupulously the swollen estimates of 
the different bouluc bashis, beys, and pashas, who, 
by lengthening their muster-rolls endeavoured to in¬ 
crease their own importance. But the passage of the 
Balkans has quickened their sight, and awakened 
energy with apprehension, statistical details have been 
demanded throughout the whole country, and these 
can easily be collected from the municipalities. The 
governors and pashas of late appointment can all read 
and write, and seem to have taken up statistics with 


* In the Supplement to the Enc. Brit, in the Modern Traveller, 
&c., it is out of the question to look for any approximation to ac¬ 
curacy in their calculations; for the very delimitations of districts 
are laid down with less accuracy than those of the kingdoms of central 
Africa. 


272 


APPENDIX. 


spirit. I can bear testimony to the readiness with 
which they have communicated to me all the informa¬ 
tion they themselves possessed ; we may, therefore, 
soon expect to be in possession of official returns. 

The grand vizir proposed organizing 300,000 men, 
drafted from the Mussulman population, taking one 
man from fifteen souls, which would give a Mussul¬ 
man population of 4,500,000. Now throughout the 
country, the Mussulman population never exceeds 
one-third of the Christian. The following classifica¬ 
tion, by race and language, I think preferable to un¬ 
certain territorial subdivision, or to ranging them 
under the indefinite heads of Christians and Turks :— 

Osmanlis—Turkish race and language, all Mussulmen 700,000* 
Greeks—Hellenic race and language, all Christians 2,050,OOOf 
Albanians—Skipertar race and language, two-thirds 

Mussulmans .... 1,600,000 


* That portion of European Turkey which now forms Greece 
contained most Osmanlis; but supposing the Osmanlis scattered, 
equally over the whole country, if there were 35,000 in Greece, in 
European Turkey (eight times as large) there would have been 
280,000 Osmanlis ; and this is certainly above the mark. Besides 
these, there are the Turkish Juruks and Coniars, Turkish cultivators 
around Olympus, and in Macedonia; and the Turkish population 
of Constantinople, Adrianople, Salonica, and Philipopolis. 


f Free Greeks 

Candia, Samas, Rhodes, Scio, Mitylene, &c. 
Thessaly, the Pindus range, and Lower Epirus 
Macedonia 

Constantinople, Thrace, &c. 


. 870,000 
. 280,000 
. 400,000 
. 300,000 
. 200,000 


2,050,000 



APPENDIX. 


273 


Sclavonic race and dialects—one-third Mussulmans, 

(Bosaniacs, Tulemans, Pomac); two-thirds'Chris¬ 
tians of the Greek church (Servians, Bulgarians); 
of the Latin (Mirdites Croatians) occupying the 
tract to the north of 41° . . . 6,000 000 

Vlachi Greek church .... 600,000 

Other races—gypsies (200,000); Jews (250,000); 

Armenians (100,000); Franks, &c., (50,000) . 600,000 


11,550,000 

Wallachia and Moldavia . . . 1,500,000 


13,050,000 


No. Ill .—Page 253. 

National possessions , population , and revenue of 
Greece . 

Without venturing to vouch for the exactitude of 
the subjoined tables, I think I may safely say that 
they are more accurate than any thing that has been 
yet published on the subject. They are based on 
the labours of the statistical commission instituted by 
Capodistrias. The coincidence of my own confined 
inquiries, with their results, lead me to place con¬ 
siderable confidence in them, which is still further in¬ 
creased by their agreeing, on some points, to an 
extent truly astonishing, with the results obtained by 
Col. Leake, who, between the years 1805 and 1810, 
with his characteristic research and exactitude, framed 
tables of the population of the Morea and of conti- 

T 





274 


APPENDIX. 


nental Greece, which he has had the kindness to 
communicate to me. For the Morea the totals are as 
follows: for the nineteen capitals of Valayetis, or 
towns inhabited partly by Christians and Turks, the 
Greeks were 155,000; the village and exclusively 
agricultural population, 185,000; Osmanlis, 26,500; 
Laliotes—Mussulman—Albanians, J 0,000; in all— 
Greeks 340,000, Mussulmans 36,500. 

In continental Greece the difficulty of ascertaining 
the limits of districts make the details vary when the 
totals agree. Thus, although the items of Col. 
Leake’s tables for western Greece vary considerably 
from the annexed tables, the totals agree, with the 
difference of 900—the one being 116,900, the other 
116,000. 

Attica does not at present, or did not before the 
revolution, contain more than one twentieth of its 
ancient population; Egina not the hundredth part of 
the very slaves assigned to it by Aristotle. Argolis 
must have contained ten times its present population ; 
and those districts, of whose ancient population we 
can form any estimate, may at least be reckoned ten 
times as populous as they are at present. The moun¬ 
tainous districts, however, do not follow the same 
rule; their population having been much smaller, in 
proportion, than it is at present; the rich lands being 
occupied by the Turks, the Greeks have been 
driven for support and defence to the mountains. 

In Table D, in calculating the actual population of 
the Greek states, I have first deducted 62,810 Mussul¬ 
mans ; 58,000 for the loss of the Morea, and 42,700 
for the loss of continental Greece—in all 163,510, 
from the population in 1820. Certainly a large de- 


APPENDIX. 


275 


duction. The official census for 1829, gave for the 
Morea and the islands 550,000, but the population 
was then very fluctuating. 

In the Morea the rapidity with which its po¬ 
pulation increased, after each devastation, is won¬ 
derful. In 1717, on its final subjugation, it was cal¬ 
culated to contain 400,000 souls ; in 1756 a dreadful 
plague swept off half the population ; in 1770 the 
expedition of Orloff subjected that province to ten 
years of continuous devastation and bloodshed; and 
after the extermination of the Arnauts, the depopu¬ 
lated country was again, in 1781, visited by pesti¬ 
lence. Before this scourge was inflicted, the popula¬ 
tion was estimated below 200,000, yet thirty years 
afterwards the Christians amounted to 340,000; in 
1820 they were 458,000; and in 1829, after the 
eight years of revolution, there were in the Morea 
330,000, and 60,000 refugees in adjacent islands. 

From table E it will appear that the legal revenue 
of the countries and islands constituting the Greek 
state amounted to 6,678,797, (^446,253;) a sum 
certainly ample for the expenditure at present. Cus¬ 
toms and excise form but six per cent, of this sum, 
(^31,666,) or two per cent, of the gross amount of 
revenue and exaction, and ought to be abandoned 
altogether. At this moment I should think, that, 
with prospective security, Greece may be considered 
as recovered from the revolution; especially when it 
is borne in mind that she is delivered from 63,000 Mus¬ 
sulmans, who either lived on the industry of the 
Greeks, or occupied the richest land. 

Table F is an approximate calculation of the 
national possessions. The value placed opposite 


*276 


APPENDIX. 


each item is rather introduced to convey more con¬ 
cisely by figures than could be expressed by words, 
an idea of their general and relative importance. 
These sums are calculated on a purchase of three 
years, at the price at which private sales have been 
effected between the years 1829 and 1830, inclusive. 
During this period some kinds of property have 
quadrupled in price. If this property were offered 
at once for sale, of course it would not fetch a price 
even approaching these estimates; but, nevertheless, 
this is a capital which the government may let out at 
high interest: it has ready money ; it may advance 
small loans to the peasantry; it may establish banks 
for that purpose in each district, as was proposed to 
Capodistrias. But if such banks are established, let 
them be according to the Arab model of the Beit-ul- 
mahl, for public as well as private property, under 
the management of the municipal council. An act 
such as this can, however, only emanate from men 
with sufficient decision and confidence in their own 
judgment to step boldly beyond the narrow prejudices 
and selfish views of their subordinates. Confidence 
is reciprocal: let the government mark its trust in the 
people by so beneficial an act as this, and that trust 
will be returned to it a hundred fold ; not only would 
the revenue be augmented by the rapid improvement 
of agriculture, but contentment and a universal in¬ 
terest in good government would be spread through 
the whole community. Sincerely do I hope that the 
new administration will instantly apply the funds it 
has received, in this only way in which its utility can 
be unequivocal, instead of frigidly hoarding it up, like 
the talent of the unprofitable servant. 


APPENDIX. 


277 


The value of land will rise rapidly in Greece, and 
if this calculation of £12,000,000 is at all near the 
mark at present, it will be trebled in three or four 
years of tranquillity. Under the Turks, money for 
agricultural purposes was borrowed at twenty per 
cent., yet the cultivator had to endure arbitrary ex¬ 
actions : he had no roads, no waggons, no wheel- 
rows— no idea of rotation of crops—no manure—no 
spade—no harrow, and may hardly be said to have 
had a plough. Under so many disadvantages—with 
no expedients for abridging labour, no knowledge by 
which the produce might be rendered more abundant 
and more valuable, if the cultivator could afford to pay 
twenty per cent, interest, what will not the value of 
land become, when, by experience and instruction, 
improved agriculture is introduced, with European 
modes of reducing the expense of cultivation; and 
when, if the government is wise, the order and point 
of honour of Europe are engrafted on the simplicity 
of the Turkish financial, judiciary, and proprietory 
system ? 

The internal debts of Greece were settled at 
200,000,000 of piasters, besides 20,000,000 borrowed 
by Capodistrias. The piastre being then seventy- 
five to the pound, and two and a half to the Greek 
phoenix ; so that to the original debt in England 
is to be added £2,933,333 ; and the new loan, 
£2,400,000, which ought to be immediately taken up 
and appropriated as above. The debt will thus 
amount in all to about seven millions sterling. This 
may appear an enormous sum for Greece, but with 
economy in the administration, prudence in the settle¬ 
ment of the public lands, and, above all, by the 


278 APPENDIX. 

emancipation of Greece from all legislation affecting 
the industry of man, the exchange or transport of mer¬ 
chandise or produce, or the self-adjustment of in¬ 
terests—she possesses means far more than sufficient 
to meet all her obligations. 














To face Table A.—p. 279. 


The arable, vineyard, and garden land in the opposite 
Table are calculated per stremma, or one third of an acre; 
the olives by the number of trees; the contributions in 
piastres, then fifteen to the pound. 











w i %■ • Jkgt& 


( 

aid*!' 



To fatce pape l6'7. 












































































































280 


APPENDIX 


TABLE B. 

POPULATION OF THE ISLANDS IN 1830. 

Tinos . . 28,000 

Myconi . . 5,500 

CENTRAL CYCLADES. 


NORTHERN SPORADES. 


Skiathos 

. 

1,500 

Skopelos 

. 

7,000 

Skvros 

. 

2,500 

Heliodromia 

• 

300 

WESTERN 

SPORADES 

. 

Hydra 

. . 

16,000 

Spezzia 

, . 

8,000 

Egina 


3,500 

Salamina 

, . 

4,000 

Poros 

. 

7,000 


NORTHERN CYCLADES. 


Syra 

. 4,500 

Xerefos 

. 2,000 

Thermia 

. 4,500 

Zea . . 

. 5 000 

Andros 

. 16,000 


District. 

Corinth and Dervenochori 
Vostizza 
Calavrita 
Patras 

Gastonna and Lala 
Fanani 
Arcadia 
Navarino 
Modon 
Coron 
Calamata 

Androutsa and Nisi 
Mikromani 
Leondari 
Caritena 
Tripolitza 
Mistra 
Monembasia 
Agios Petros 
Argos 
Napoli 
Maina • 


Naxos 


. 13,000 

Paros and Antiparos 

. 7,200 

Ios 


. 5,000 

Sycenos 

# 

. 600 

Polycandros 


. . 1,000 

Milos 

* 

. 5,000 

Kemelos 


. 1,000 

Syfnos 


. 6,000 

Amorgos 

. 

. 3,500 

SOUTHERN 

CYCLADES. 

Santorini 


. 47,000 

Anafi 

# 

700 

Astypalaia 

• 

. 3,000 

Psariot refugees 


. 8,700 

218,000 

jE c. 

HE MOREA IN 1820. 

Greek . 


Turkish . 

38,000 

_ 

2,000 

10,000 

_ 

300 

40,000 

_ 

450 

30,000 

_ 

3,500 

40,000 

_ 

5,000 

13,000 

_ 

2,500 

26,000 

_ 

3,000 

3,000 

_ 

1,000 

6,000 

_ 

2,500 

9,000 

_ 

1,000 

12,000 


50 

15,000 

- 

750 

2,000 

_ 


13,000 

_ 

1,500 

40,000 

_ 

200 

25,000 

_ 

7,000 

60,000 

. 

6,000 

8,000 

_ 

1,500 

10,000 

_ 


18,000 

_ 

1,000 

10,000 

30,000 

- 

500 








APPENDIX. 


281 


TABLE D. 

PRESENT POPULATION OF THE GREEK STATES. 

Islands &c. 218,000 

Eastern Greece . . . . 150,000 

Western Greece . . . 100,000 

Morea . . .4 00,000 

868,000 


TABLE E. 

STATEMENT OF THE VALUE OF THE NATIONAL 
DOMAINS OF GREECE. 


Morea. Stremmata. 

Pasture and Forest 6,000,000 @ 
Corn Land . 

Irrigable Land 


Currant Land 
Vineyards 
Olive Trees 
Fruit Trees 
Mills 


3 Piastres, 
6,000,000 @ 50 

500,000 @ 1,000 
. 1,500 @ 3,000 

. 6,000 @ 1,000 

. 100.000 @ 50 

. 20,000 @ 20 

400 @ 5,000 


st. 18,000,000 
300,000,000 
500,000,000 
4,500,000 
6,000,000 
5,000,000 
400,000 
2,000,000 


Continental Greece, excepting Eubea and Attica, in 
which provinces the Turks retain the right of 
selling their lands. 

Pasture and Forest .... 3,000,000 

Arable Land . 750,000 ©50 piastres st. 37,500,000 

Vineyards and gardens 3,000 @ 1,000 . 3,000,000 

Olive Trees . 150,000 @ 50 . 7,500,000 

Mills .... 600,000 


887,500,000 
£11,833.333 7s 





‘282 


APPENDIX 


TABLE F. 

RENENUE OF GREECE BEFORE THE REVOLUTION. 



1. Poll Tax. 


Piastres. 

Eastern Greece 

191,500 

Western Greece 

60,105 

Morea 

463,000 

Islands 

200,000 

( 


2. TithEo 

Eastern Greece 

761,000 

Western Greece 

173,292 

Morea 

. 2,500,000 

-3. 


3. Assessed Taxe 

Eastern Greece 

1,607,000 

Western Greece 

12,900 

Islands 

250,000 


914,605 


3,434,292 


1,869,900 


4. Customs and Excise. 
Morea—Excise on Wine 150,000 
Export duties on cur¬ 


rants, silk, wool. &c. > 325,000 
Import—coffee, &c. j - 


475,000 


Paid to the Porte 


Total 6,693,797 


liaised for local purposes , without the sanction of the Porte , but by 
order of the local authorities approximate calculation . 

For the Morea . 10,000,000 

For Continental Greece 2,000,000 

- 12,000,000 


Approximate calculation of the Total Revenue of 
the Provinces, comprised in independent Greece 


previous to the Revolution. 


Piastres 18,693,797 


At 15 piastres per pound sterling £1,246,260 









APPENDIX. 


283 


COMPARISON 

OF 

THE MODE OF RAISING THE REVENUE 

IN 

TURKEY, ROME, ENGLAND, &c. 


It has too long been a habit in Europe to regard 
Mahometanism purely as a religion, without con¬ 
sidering that a political was involved with the reli¬ 
gious question, and that the religious sanction was 
often not unprofitably applied to public ends. It is 
not even by the code of Islamism that the political 
structure and powers of that system are to be esti¬ 
mated, because the Koran was accompanied by tra¬ 
ditions which were the political institutions of Arabia, 
preserved from time immemorial, admirably simple 
and powerfully efficient; “and so well adapted, so 
natural, and so simple, that every nation not reduced 
to slavery, if thrown at large on the wide desert, 
might be expected to adopt the same. 5?# But for¬ 
tunately juster notions are beginning to prevail; the 
religious is now separated from the political ques- 
* Burkhardt. Notes on the Bedouines, p. ' 214 . 



284 


APPENDIX. 


tion ;* Arabic literature is gradually unrolling itself 
to our eyes, and from many points, new and steady, 
and increasing lights are thrown on the character, 
history, and institutions of eastern nations. 

The beauty and energy of the Arabic institutions 
lie in their simplicity, and looking at them in their 
original purity, the extent of the Mussulman do¬ 
minion ceases to surprise; for while in arms and in 
religion a free field was open to the daring or the 
devotion of each individual, the government, if venal, 
had no temptation—if ignorant, was under no ne¬ 
cessity of committing errors. The same principles 
have been so deeply engrafted on the habits of the 
Arabs, that in our own day they have reappeared for 
a moment, in political combination, under the Wahab 
chief, when, fortunately, such an observer as Burk- 
hardt was near to record the event. 

Greece has revived, as her symbolic Phoenix, from 
cold ashes; but the light of Arabia has never ceased 
to burn, and to shine; though, like the lamp of the 
eastern sepulchre, its ray has long been cheerless, 
and its heat unfelt. The approaching regeneration 
of the Arabs, and the revival of her spirit and her 
literature, will lead, let us hope, to the restoration of 
her ancient principles, supported by the useful in* 
struction of Europe. 

1 have been particularly struck by the apparent 
identity of the administrative maxims to which I refer, 
with those of an empire, which in extent and perma¬ 
nency of dominion, is only to be compared to that of 
Islamism—an empire, too, in whose institutions all 
Europe is interested; for the political, legal, and mu- 

* See especially Mahometanism unveiled, by the Rev. M. Foster. 


APPENDIX. 


285 


nicipal resemblance of her various states, is derived 
from Rome, their common ancestor. 

The municipal institution being only active and 
efficient when it is cleared of all ,/ormajity, and un¬ 
shackled by legislation—when it subdivides, itself' 
and extends its ramifications to the remotest hamlet 
and the meanest lane—is to be found in history, not 
recorded, but indicated. Roman law, when adopted 
by the nations of Europe, carefully defines the obliga¬ 
tions and the exemptions of municipal officers, but 
scarcely notices the mode of election, or only inci¬ 
dentally refers to the usage of the place.* But it is 
not to the practice of Rome herself, to the laws of her 
municipia under the republic, or to her law under 
the empire, become public law of Europe, that I wish 
to compare the administrative maxims of Turkey; 
but to her practice, in the early days of her virtue 
and vigour, and to the system she introduced in the 
countries she subdued. 

Like Turkey, Rome divided its conquests into mili¬ 
tary governments; whither a yearly military governor, 
a yearly judicial officer, and receiver of tribute, were 
sent from the chief seat of government. The tenth 
of all lands, the rent of the public domains, and a 
poll-tax, were the resources of the revenue in both 
empires ; and both left the tributaries to collect it 
themselves—to remit the sum due to the public 
treasury, according to a general assessment, free of 

* This is a point deserving particular notice and inquiry, but 
which is not called for in a mere incidental notice of the municipa¬ 
lities of Rome. Suffice it for the present to say, that in the larger 
towns (for the Roman municipalities were urban, not rural,) smaller 
bodies in each district elected deputies, who elected the superior 
municipal officers; the votes of two-thirds of those present at both 
assemblies being requisite to make the election valid. 


286 


APPENDIX. 


all charges—taxing themselves in addition for the 
local expenditure; the central government support¬ 
ing only the military and judicial establishments, 
leaving all ofiis* jitters to the tributaries, without 
ey%n for&iiig on them their 6wn code of civil law, or 
any forms of public or municipal administration.^ 
Neither ever attempted to raise their revenue from 
commerce; they neither of them ever attempted to 
protect or encourage it, or to legislate for it.-)- A 
moderate transport duty was enacted, but which was 
only intended for the repair of roads and bridges. 
It was the same for goods entering by land or sea, 
and was one and the same for home or foreign pro¬ 
ductions. After the Roman supremacy was esta¬ 
blished in the Mediterranean, the duty did not ex¬ 
ceed three per cent. The Mussulman tariff is five 
percent, for tributaries, four for Mussulman, and three 
per cent, for foreigners, J favoured in the character, so 
sacred among the easterns, of guests. 

Here are general features of most striking resem¬ 
blance—freedom of commerce, taxation on property, 

* The provincials applied, on contested points, to the praetors, 
when judgment was pronounced, not according to any one original 
code given to the provinces, but according to equity. These appeals 
were voluntarily made from municipal arbitration to the supreme 
authority, as now sometimes happens in Turkey. 

t Usury laws are a common exception. Salt has always been a 
fertile subject of agitation in Roman history, yet the Roman law 
prohibits monopolies, and Makrizi informs us that Mahomet in his 
last moments congratulated himself on not having interfered in any 
way with the weights, measures, currency, and exchange of any 
nation. 

X As all goods are imported by foreigners, or subjects sharing 
their privileges, the tax practically amounts to three per cent., very 
liberally estimated. 


APPENDIX. 


287 


popularly and gratuitously collected revenue, and an 
immense territory, submitting to a corrupt and des¬ 
potic military aristocracy. The municipal system 
is wholly incompatible with centralization of the 
administrative and financial functions, but neces¬ 
sarily dependent on centralized political and mili¬ 
tary power. Universal dominion was not, with 
such principles of public economy, the vain dream 
it naturally appears to us, if the Roman emperors, 
or the Mussulman califs, could have been kept within 
the bounds of moderation and justice. This sys¬ 
tem, by preventing legislative interference, prevents 
both errors and reactions; and the parts of the 
state eagerly supported the general authority which 
maintained general peace, internal tranquillity, and 
acted as a moderator and judge, above partiality, and 
above envy.* It brought justice to each man’s door, 
gave financial influence to each individual, but left no 
field for political struggles. And besides all these 
advantages, taxation falling on property—industry 
and exchange, production and commerce, were left 
entirely free. If such were the general rule, how¬ 
ever obscured by exceptions, was it surprising to see 
Rome mistress of the world, or the dominions of the 
califfs extending from the Pillars of Hercules almost 
to the wall of China ? 

* Such as our dominion in India, by its superior form, is so 
eminently calculated to become; if, while it maintained a general 
political and military supremacy, such as that of Rome, it adopted 
the Roman maxim, of not only not interfering itself, but of 
putting an end to the tyranny of little native aristocracies; or if it 
adopted this maxim not only of common law but of kingly au¬ 
thority—“ Quod omnes tangit ab omnibus approbetur .”—Summons 
to Parliament , 23 Edw. 1. 


288 


APPENDIX. 


The annexation of Macedonia to the empire affords 
perhaps the most clearly recorded example of the 
Roman policy, and most satisfactorily establishes this 
coincidence of the principle of the two empires, and 
the equal effect of both dominions of destroying do¬ 
mestic tyranny, and of leaving to the mass of the 
vanquished nations so much interest in their own ad¬ 
ministration as to attach them to their yoke, and so 
much control over the handling of their revenue as 
to deprive that yoke of much of its severity. 

Paullus * declares to the Macedonians that they 
were free; the cities retaining their former lands, 
using their own laws, and electing annual magi¬ 
strates ; that they should pay one-half the direct 
taxes (tributaria) which they had paid to their kings ; 
that the kingdom was to be divided into four pro¬ 
vinces, and in the chief place of each province 
councils were to be held, magistrates elected, and the 
tribute collected: the importation of salt was forbidden, 
and the customs and excise (vectigal) should be re¬ 
duced one half. To these concessions was appended 
(in violation of the general practice of Rome) the not 
very comprehensible but most galling prohibition of 
commerce between the different provinces, or the right 
of possessing lands or houses beyond the limits of the 
province to which each man belonged, which was 
compared by the Macedonians to tearing asunder the 
members of a body, mutually necessary to each other’s 
existence. The Romans destroyed every chance of 
old prejudices and combinations influencing these 
elections, or investing their former chiefs or their 
hereditary nobles with the new municipal offices, for 
* Livy, b. xlv. c. 29. 


APPENDIX. 


289 


all the chief men of Macedonia, and all their children 
above fifteen years of age, were ordered to repair to 
Italy under pain of death. The people, who at first 
looked on this measure with alarm, received it as a 
guarantee of their independence: for these men 
were accustomed to abject servility to their kings 
and haughty imperiousness to their inferiors; were 
educated in the habits of princely expenditure ; and 
while some possessed overgrown fortunes, others 
were without the legitimate means of supplying their 
expenditure; Ci they had therefore no disposition to 
citizenship, and could endure neither the superiority 
of laws nor the equality of rights.”* Here I think is 
sufficient proof, that however different the motives 
and [the character of the two people might be, the 
principles of both administrations were the same. 
Coincidences of detail are, however, not wanting, if 
they were required to complete the picture, but there 
are only two ways of raising revenue, by direct or by 
indirect means. The complications and intricacies of 
the indirect system, are of course without limits, as 
without fixed rule; the direct system must ever re¬ 
solve itself into a calculation of property, and there¬ 
fore the financial system of all nations raising their 
revenue directly, must be very nearly the same. But 
fortunately it is not merely by analogy that we can 
establish the antipathy of Rome to interference with 
the native bodies in the collection of the revenue : the 
senate in the most formal manner has recorded its 
opinions and its policy on that point. By the decree 
which incorporates Macedonia with the empire, the 
Macedonians are relieved from the obligation of 
* C. 32. 

u 


290 


APPENDIX. 


working the mines, because these could not be ren¬ 
dered productive, unless let to a farmer of revenue; 
(publicanus;) “ for where there is a publicanus, there 
either public right is void, or there is no liberty for 
the allies.”* It is also expressly stipulated, that no 
native can be a publicanus. The Roman quaestor re¬ 
ceived the tribute, but did not go about collecting it. 
How then was it collected, save by some of the an¬ 
nually elected magistrates mentioned in the decree of 
the senate ? f 

There a source of revenue is abandoned, rather 
than have recourse to a means considered so unjustifi¬ 
able. The assigning of such a motive, even if simu¬ 
lated, proves to demonstration the paramount im¬ 
portance which the Republic attached to raising its 
direct taxes through the municipal bodies; for it is 
clear, that the additional expense of collection could 
be no reason for resigning the tax altogether; the 
motive must have been the political attachment with 
which they saw this system inspired the conquered 
states, and the opportunities thus withdrawn from 
the provincial executive, of exciting discontent by un¬ 
productive financial oppression. 

The next point of inquiry is, how far these insti¬ 
tutions maintained themselves under the military 
governments, when these came to be absolute and 

* Livy, xlv. 18. 

-f- But on this point not a shadow of doubt can remain. The Ro¬ 
man law can leave none, as the assessment and collection of revenue 
are put forward as the very end and source of the institution; even 
in the use of the word allies instead of subjects, may be traced 
the strong resemblance between the administration the Romans 
adopted in their subject states, and our subsidiary system of India. 
—See Domat. Pub. L. Pub. Rev. Tit. 5, Sec. xii. 


APPENDIX. 


291 


uncontrolled. It may perhaps be assumed, and it 
has by respectable authors been assumed, that the 
state of Turkey presents to-day an image of the 
anarchy of the Roman provinces under the declining 
empire. I am however inclined to think, that not¬ 
withstanding this apparent resemblance, the condi¬ 
tions of the two empires are essentially different, and 
will lead to opposite results. 

The impossibility of admixture of the classes sepa¬ 
rated by the strong demarcation of religion, maintained 
compact and round the supremacy of the Turks, and 
prevented any permanent connexion of interest be¬ 
tween the privileged and oppressed classes, so as to 
form mixed interests which could restrict to themselves 
the municipal offices and convert these bodies into 
close corporations. Thus has the municipal system 
in Turkey retained to this day its form and vigour, 
and needs but to be relieved from external pressure, 
to produce the same effects all over the country, as it 
has done in those spots which we have already 
noticed. 

The reverse of this became the state of the Roman 
provinces under the declining empire; the line of 
demarcation between governors and governed be¬ 
came obliterated ; a portion of the people itself be¬ 
came interested in misgovernment, and the executive 
assumed the important and all-pervading functions of 
the municipalities—the honourable and honorary mu¬ 
nicipal assessor and collector were replaced by the 
mercenary officers of an irresponsible authority. 
Direct taxation is a sharp weapon, effective for good 
or evil according to the skilfulness with which it is 
used; when collected by responsible and popularly 

u 2 


292 


APPENDIX. 


elected magistrates, burdens are adjusted to pro¬ 
perty, “ for which alone men are taxed/’* but when 
assessed and collected by a hired tax-gatherer, or by 
government agents, it may become, and I may say 
always has been, the most intolerable of all tyrannies. 

In this comparison I purposely omit the burden of 
the laws, which lay so. heavy on the Roman pro¬ 
vinces—the factions, and the hundred ills which com¬ 
plicated the state of the decaying empire, because I 
think all these, w ith national weakness, foreign con¬ 
quest, with the warring interests of the political body, 
are but remote consequences of the substitution of 
tax-gatherers for municipal collectors. 

It was by the pollution of the source, that the whole 
collected stream of financial and administrative power 
became corrupted; irresponsibility created abuse, 
abuse was maintained by violence, wrong engendered 
hatred, and the barbarians, feebly combatted by the de¬ 
generate armies, were invited by the oppressed pro¬ 
vincials to efface internal feuds and invidious dis¬ 
tinctions, wdiich their own divisions rendered both 
implacable and irremediable; so that Goths and Van¬ 
dals were received as saviours, and owed their con¬ 
quest to the Roman tax-gatherer rather than to their 
own arms.t 

* Maxim of Roman law, as well as of Adam Smith. 

t “ In all the cities, municipia, and villages, there are as many 
tyrants as there are officers of the government. Public burdens are 
made the means of private plunder—none are safe from the devasta¬ 
tions of these depopulating robbers. The burdens, though severe, 
would be more tolerable if borne by all equally and in common, 
but they are partially imposed and arbitrarily levied. They who do 
not fly to the barbarians become barbarians themselves. In this 
state is a large portion of Spain and no small portion of Gaul. 


APPENDIX. 


293 


In Turkey we see provinces escaped from servi¬ 
tude, coalescing, combining, governing themselves.* 
Turkey found her European subjects in the most 
degraded condition; they have gained under her 
wing the power of unlocking her talon’s grasp. Give 

Roman oppression makes all men no longer Romans. By what other 
causes do men become bagande, (outlaws,) but-by our iniquities—by 
the dishonesty of our judges, by the proscriptions and rapine of 
those who convert the public exactions into emoluments for them¬ 
selves—-who make the appointed taxations the means of their plunder? 
—they fly to the public foe to avoid the tax-gatherer.”—From Sal- 
vian, an ecclesiastic of Marseilles, published in the Mag. Bib. Pa- 
toum, vol. v. 

Mr. Turner, who makes considerable use of this author in his 
history of the Anglo-Saxons, observes, that this description of the 
evils of the Roman provinces recalls the oppression of the Turkish em¬ 
pire. But it is difficult to conceive how, under similar military anar¬ 
chies, the evils of the tw'Q dominions could be more dissimilar. In 
Turkey, the taxation is not unequal—it is not a source of emolument 
except to the governing class. There is no tyranny of law, and to 
crown all, there are no tax-gatherers. 

* Servia, released from Turkish oppression, is quietly organizing 
itself, unheeded in its happy obscurity. It is remarkable that this 
independent people have not the Scriptures translated into their 
language, though they have printed newspapers, and though the 
Code Napoleon has been translated into Servian. A translation 01 
the Scriptures was offered to the Bible Society; the question was 
referred to the Greek Patriarch, who naturally threw obstacles in 
the way of such a publication, on the grounds that the ancient 
Illyrian was the Church language of Servia. Thus, while the Society 
is translating the Bible for the islands of the Pacific, it has refused 
to accept a translation offered to it * into the vernacular tongue of 
between four and five millions of civilized beings in the centre of 
Europe. 


* By Dr. Vyk, known to English literature by Dr. Bowring’s 
translation of Servian popular poetry 



294 


APPENDIX. 


Turkey herself but moderate time and a fair field, 
and I see nothing in her political constitution to make 
us despair of a great and a happy, and, I may add, a 
speedy change; but without some exertion she can¬ 
not have the requisite time, and far less fair and 
honourable lists. 

Throughout India the municipal system exists, but 
only in name, as a reproach to the intelligence of this 
country, which, exhausting ingenuity in forming 
boards and committees, and in establishing checks 
and controls, neglected the solid and national foun¬ 
dation which the Mussulman dominion had left. 
Yet no form of administration could have more hap¬ 
pily combined with the subsidiary system, and when 
we took the whole management into our hands, this 
sure and easy method was essential to a government 
whose head was on the opposite side of the globe, 
and which consequently was ever subject to errors of 
omission and commission, of interest, of ignorance, 
and of delay. But not content with neglecting this 
means of simplifying our administration, and of se¬ 
curing our supremacy—of attaching the natives to us, 
and elevating their character; we subverted that 
venerable structure, by violating the only hitherto un¬ 
violated right, that of property. We have forced the 
Mussulman laws on our Indian subjects; but that 
law recognizes most solemnly the right of the oc¬ 
cupier of the soil to the property of the soil. The 
word rent is of fatal import in our eastern pos¬ 
sessions; and perhaps the confounding of it with 
tribute was the original cause of a series of errors, 
where there was no interest to mislead the higher 
eastern functionaries, who seem, on the contrary, to 


APPENDIX. 


295 


have been actuated by the most disinterested and 
benevolent motives. The feudalism of the East 
bearing to that of the West the closest resemblance 
in its higher combinations, is wholly different in its 
character and effects. The feudal lord acquired the 
soil, and with it its cultivators, as a possession ; in 
the East, the right of the lord extended only to a 
portion of the produce . In its superior form, and 
on paper, the Zemindary system, even in its va¬ 
rieties, its anomalies, and exceptions, bears the 
closest resemblance to the Turkish financial adminis¬ 
tration ; in operation they are wholly different. The 
foregoing pages will have explained the fundamental, 
unobtrusive, and unrecorded causes which constitute 
the difference. In the folios on the revenue of India, 
the village system is but at times obscurely indicated; 
some of the older reports speak of it with a mixture 
of surprise and incredulity; it is only very lately 
that it has become a subject of enlightened inquiry. 
Attempts have been even made to restore its effici¬ 
ency, by the revival of the Punchayet. But it is to be 
regretted that the character of the native municipalities 
should have been staked on such an experiment: 
the election of their magistrates is withdrawn—the 
experience and habits of administration, in assessing 
and collecting the revenue, is suppressed, and the 
right of property is recalled from the demoralized 
Hindoo. Under such circumstances, can five men, 
selected arbitrarily from, or even elected by, the com¬ 
munity, be objects of public confidence as judicial 
authorities? and on the failure of such a scheme, 
which displays, with the best intention, little ac- 


296 


APPENDIX. 


quaintance with the moral working of the institution, 
is the system itself to be condemned ? 

But it is not surprising that the village system is 
neglected in India, where it has lost all its nerve, 
vigour, and utility, when we see it neglected in 
Turkey, where it is raising divers populations to in¬ 
dependence, and where it is the agent, and the only 
agent, for the collection of the revenue. D’Ohsson 
thus sums up the provincial administration of Turke} r : 
“ In the whole empire, Egypt excepted, the organi¬ 
zation of the administrative authorities is sufficiently 
uniform. Beside the governor, who unites the civil 
and military authority, is placed a magistrate, en¬ 
trusted with the administration of justice. The tri¬ 
butaries are placed under the authority of officers oi 
police, soubachis, and they have chiefs of their own, 
cadja baschis, whose authority is restricted to the 
distribution (repartition) of the imposts and taxes 
laid on the cantons.” Vol. vii. p. 283. 

In this voluminous work, no less remarkable for its 
elaborate details than for its surprising accuracy, this 
is the only mention made of the means used for the 
all-important object of the distribution and collection 
of the revenue of this colossal empire ! 

In ancient India, as in Turkey, “ to facilitate the 
regular payment of the revenues, the states were 
divided into districts, each containing within itself a 
greater or less number of villages or parishes. Every 
one of these divisions and subdivisions again, how¬ 
ever small, presented the semblance of a regularly 
constituted republic ; nor, in the general organization 
of the one was there any important feature of dis- 


APPENDIX. 


297 


agreement with those discoverable in the other. Thus 
the smallest village appears in its municipalities but 
as an epitome of the largest capital, whilst each and 
both are in this respect but copies of the district to 
which they belong. # 

The evidence taken before the many committees on 
East Indian affairs, affords numerous proofs, in their 
still remaining forms, of the identity of the ancient 
system with that of Turkey. The most important 
point in the inquiry is how the municipal officers were 
elected ; the present practice of institutions which 
have lost all utility and importance, and are scarcely 
more than traditionary, is of little weight ; and as 
well might we attempt to prove that corporations in 
England were anciently close and self-elected bodies, 
because they are so at present, as that the polail, the 
carnum, the headman of the craft, or the little mayor 
of the village in India, were originally, according to 
the present practice, hereditary officers, or named by 
the agents of the supreme government. 

But in India this system existed antecedently to 
the Mussulman conquest, and it is still to be found in 
Ceylon. Colonel Colebrooke, one of the Commis¬ 
sioners, for Ceylon, where the enlarged mind of Sir 
A. Johnstone has sowed the first seeds of the future 
improvement of the native population, has ventured to 
suggest rules for the regulation of the native system; 
but he enters, unfortunately, into no detail either 
respecting the organization or the effect of the system, 
further than to say, that in the southern districts the 
headmen are chosen, and are sometimes hereditary; 
and that in the northern provinces “ the headmen of 
* History of British India, vol. i. p. 29. 


298 


APPENDIX. 


castes and villages are commonly appointed on the 
nomination of the inhabitants. There is, however, 
no established form of election, a deputation of the 
villages making a return to the magistrate of the can¬ 
didate chosen by them.” 

I am led particularly to notice these able Reports, 
which contain most valuable information and impor¬ 
tant suggestions, for the purpose of pointing out the 
dangers of interference with the elemental institution 
which beset the most liberal and benevolent men, who 
have not yet got rid of their early European political 
notions ; my meaning will be explained by the follow¬ 
ing extract from Colonel Colebrooke’s first Report; 
containing his suggestions for remodelling the village 
system. I have put in italics the portions which an 
illiterate Turkish raya might point out as superfluous 
or objectionable, and, in his untutored notions, ridi¬ 
culous ; and these portions embrace every single sug¬ 
gestion for interference with her national practice:— 

“ From the peculiar constitution of the village 
communities, composed, as they often are, of people 
belonging to particular castes, their ancient usages 
may be preserved ; and it would be satisfactory to 
them if the appointment of the headman of each vil¬ 
lage community, or parish, should be made on the 
nomination of the inhabitants who are proprietors of 
land or houses. The qualification for the office of 
village headman should he the possession of property 
in the village to a certain amount , and where a 
vacancy occurs , the government agent , or his as¬ 
sistant in the district , should collect the votes , and 
the appointment should be made in conformity to the 
wishes of the majority. In the district of Jaffna, where 


APPENDIX. 


299 


the headmen are thus nominated, the elections have 
been made without regularity or form; it will, there - 
fore , be necessary to define the qualification of 
electors, and to regulate the mode in which the votes 
are to be talcem; also to provide that in cases where 
corruption has been practised, the nomination should 
be set aside , and the person disqualified from hold¬ 
ing the office . The office of headman of a village 
should be sitbject to renewal every three years ” 

The provisions against corruption would certainly 
be necessary if the other portions of the proposed plan 
were adopted. The richest man might obtain office,, 
and retain it for life, under the original system, in 
which office was a trust, from which the steward might 
be removed, the very instant he forfeited the character 
which had procured his election, without the remotest 
idea of corruption ever being entertained, (in fact, 
the notion is perfectly European;) but restrict election 
to any class of men, prolong office for three years, 
and, of course, your useless interference with the na¬ 
tive system will make exotic laws absolutely necessary. 

To raise the character of the people in India, as in 
Turkey, you must not hamper these bodies with regu¬ 
lations and laws—they must be left to their own judg¬ 
ment. In the administration of district and local af¬ 
fairs, trust and confidence must be reposed in them, 
and they must be made the means of collecting the 
tribute without intermeddling pashas or zemendars. 

The predominating character of the Hindoo muni¬ 
cipalities was rural, originating in the cultivators 
proprietorship in the soil, and in the direct system of 
taxation, which system, indeed, seems to have been 
universal throughout the world, with the exception of 


300 


APPENDIX. 


China and of modern Europe. I find but one instance 
of an urban corporation, whith is beautifully illustra¬ 
tive of the advantages of such a form of administra¬ 
tion, and of its applicability to every state and stage 
of society, It forms the link between the agricultural 
municipalities of the east and the commercial corpora¬ 
tions of the west. 

“ Jhalra-palun is the only town, 55 says Colonel 
Tod, “ possessing the germs of civil liberty in the 
power of framing their own municipal regulations. 
This is the more remarkable, as the immunities of their 
commercial charter were granted under the most des¬ 
potic ruler of India. Opposite the house of the chief 
magistrate, on a pillar of stone, is the charter of rights 
of the city. Its simplicity will excite a smile, but the 
philosopher may trace in it the first rudiments of that 
commercial greatness which made the free cities of 
Europe the instruments of general liberty. 

“ The greatest boon of all was his leaving the ad¬ 
ministration of justice, as well of national police, in 
the hands of the municipal authorities. The members 
ofthe council are selected according to the general 
sense entertained of their fitness. In twenty years 
the population has become 25,000. 

“ The only officers of government are the com¬ 
mandant and the collector of imposts ; and so jealous 
are they of the least interference on his part, that a 
fine would be inflicted on any individual who, by de¬ 
laying his contributions, furnished a pretext for in¬ 
terference/ 5 —vol. ii. p. 731. 

Each craft, to the very lowest and least respect¬ 
able, had its deacons or consuls, and these formed 
the central municipal council. 


APPENDIX. 


301 


The efficiency and even the existence of municipal 
organization depend, as I have often repeated, on 
its connexion with direct taxation. It is superfluous 
to say that America is quite as far as Europe from 
this species of, I will not say freedom, for that is a 
relative term, but good government. Where taxes 
are direct, it is the natural and visible claim and right 
of each village to inquire into the amount of their 
own local share of burthens, and to scrutinize into its 
collection. When the revenue arises from invisible 
and disguised taxation, established by the central ad¬ 
ministration, and collected under its sole authority, 
though suffrage be as free as air, not one step is made 
towards community of interests. In the one case, 
when accounts are honestly settled, all politics are at 
an end, and the greater the responsibility the greater 
the necessity of its being honestly redeemed; in the 
other, the greater the extent of suffrage the more in¬ 
deed may the people be delighted with the exercise of 
power, but more extended will become the conflict 
between interests contradistinguished by the unequal 
pressure on rich and poor, which duties on articles 
of consumption must necessarily produce, and by the 
partial—and even if impartial, unavoidable—inequality 
of revenue raised by a tariff. The majority of any 
class of the community, or of any section of the country, 
losing the means which direct taxation gives of con¬ 
trolling government in the detail of its revenue, if 
opposed by a bare majority in the central administra¬ 
tion, has no resource save throwing itself, like South 
Carolina, on its “ sovereign resistance .” 

Because America is a popular government, and be¬ 
cause the municipal system, as far as it has yet been 


302 


APPENDIX. 


carried, is based on public opinion, in the most un¬ 
limited sense, it by no means follows that the princi¬ 
ples of the two systems are the same; indeed, as far as 
they affect the character of the individual man, they 
seem the very opposite of each other; tariff*republi¬ 
canism detaches the interests and therefore the affec¬ 
tions of man from man—the common burdens of 
direct taxation, the t common control of municipal 
representation, whatever be the superior form of go¬ 
vernment, in each community, binds together the in¬ 
terests, and consequently the affections,, of all its 
members. 

For a modern term of comparison with the munici¬ 
palities of Turkey, we must naturally turn to Switzer¬ 
land. An article in the 17th number of the Foreign 
Review on the Republics of Switzerland, thus de¬ 
scribes their government:— 

“ The landsgemeinde, or general assembly of all 
the citizens, constitutes the supreme power, and con¬ 
sists of from four to eight thousand men. They make 
and abrogate laws, appoint magistrates, fix expendi¬ 
ture, provide supplies, and examine accounts, appoint 
deputies to the federal diet, and give them instruc¬ 
tions. The executive consists of the Landsrath, com¬ 
posed of a president, deputy, and a councillor from 
each commune. It appears that the nominations to 
offices are, in ordinary times, under the influence of a 
few wealthy families in each canton, and that the ma¬ 
gistrates, except when the duration of office is fixed, 
may be considered as remaining in place for life, un¬ 
less they render themselves obnoxious to the people, 
for the power of the landsgemeinde, slumbering at 
intervals, is then roused, and proves irresistible.” 


APPENDIX. 


303 


In this seems to reside the difference between the 
republican and the municipal principle. In a republic 
the tenure of office is carefully limited to increase the 
chances of power and place among the competitors for 
office, or to balance the influence of struggling fac¬ 
tions. Under the municipal system, office must be 
regarded as a stewardship ; the highest qualifications 
would be required in the steward, and election falls, 
as reputation does, on the individual most distin¬ 
guished for wealth, talent, and character; in this case, 
the public who elect such an individual would desire 
to secure his services for the longest period, as these 
services never can become dangerous or remiss when, 
as in the case just quoted, and in the municipalities 
of Turkey, the trust can be resumed as easily as 
conferred. 

But there is one canton (the Grisons) whose orga¬ 
nization is perfectly identical with the municipalities 
of Turkey, where small communes are merged in 
greater ones, where no general assemblies are held. 
This canton is, therefore, entirely free from the risks of 
popular violence, and, I should think, far more effec¬ 
tually secured than the democratic ones, against in¬ 
terested legislation. In this canton the population 
is divided “ into small communities.” (It might be 
thought that I am repeating what I have said of the 
Turkish municipalities or of the Amphyctionic bodies, 
but I quote from the above-mentioned article ;) “ each 
is known to each, and every man’s character is 
open to common scrutiny, and the people are 
strongly attached to their institutions, as they have 
repeatedly proved, at the cost of their lives, during the 
last forty years. This state is composed of small 


304 


APPENDIX. 


municipalities, having each its own council and ma¬ 
gistrates, which sends deputies to a great council, 
exercising the higher legislative powers. The laws, 
however, which emanate from the great council, must 
be submitted to the approbation of the communal 
assemblies. It may be said that these states consti¬ 
tute confederations in miniature, similar to that of 
Switzerland, of which they form a part.” 

When, in 1830-31, popular reaction spread through 
the whole of Switzerland, and overturned or remo¬ 
delled every one of the remaining sixteen cantons, the 
six democratic cantons not only partook not in the ge¬ 
neral ferment, but looked on the popular movement 
with particular mistrust and aversion. The conser¬ 
vative principle of America has been remarked as 
something strange, but if conservativeness is attach¬ 
ment to things as they are, it can nowhere be more 
strongly pronounced than where the great majority 
are attached to their political institutions. Therefore, 
at this crisis, the democratic cantons displayed the 
utmost conservativeness. At the diet of Lucerne each 
of the cantons, by its deputies, expressed its opinion on 
the late events. The feelings of the six cantons present 
a strange contrast with the others—strongly mistrustful 
and cautious, such as in our experience, limited as yet 
in forms of government, would be supposed to proceed 
from some close corporate body, or select vestry, not 
from a council elected by the universal suffrage of 
every male who has completed his eighteenth year, 
and who has been at school. 

The expression of the deputy of the Grisons is re¬ 
markable. He congratulates the remodelled cantons 
upon their closer approximation to the constitution 


APPENDIX. 


305 


of the Orisons . Such an expression, at a moment of 
general reconciliation, oblivion of the past, and hopes 
for the future, could never have been used, unless it 
coincided with the general feeling, and proceeded 
from an enlightened attachment to the form of admi¬ 
nistration that seemed to have worked so well. I 
need not repeat that that form is the nearest ap¬ 
proach Switzerland affords to the Turkish munici¬ 
palities. 

The democratic cantons allow to the people the 
uncontrolled right of electing deputies to the federal 
council, of choosing the members of the executive, 
legislative, and judicial bodies, either in their general 
or their communal assemblies, and the right of a 
ratification is reserved to them in their public assem¬ 
bly. This organization is democracy in its purest 
form, and, true to its spirit and name, gives to the 
majority of the assembled multitude, at intervals, the 
exercise of unlimited power. The municipal system, 
without allowing power to be tasted by the people, 
renders public opinion omnipotent; a succession of 
checks are not violently, at stated seasons, but al¬ 
ways in unobserved and active operation ; the utility 
of local measures, the character of their communal 
administrators, are objects of daily consideration; 
opinion is too powerful to resolve itself into party, 
too practical and domestic to assume the forms of 
the authority it in reality exercises ; every individual 
feels not a periodical authority, but a constant inte¬ 
rest in every circumstance affecting the community ; 
and if he is kept at a distance from office or authority, 
it is not by the barrier of prescription or of formality, 
but by the interval which his own respect for worth 


306 


APPENDIX. 


and character leaves between his magistrate and 
himself. 

But the late existence of municipalities in another 
state of Europe, where least of all we should think of 
looking for popular or rational institutions, is an ad¬ 
ministrative curiosity not to be overlooked—the state 
I allude to is the Papal territory. 

Count Tournon, formerly prefect of Rome, has 
published a most instructive and interesting account 
of these states, in which we are made acquainted 
with details of their internal administration prior 
to the occupation by the French, previously little 
known by the thousands of travellers that lounge 
about the ruins of the former mistress of the world. 

“ The system of municipal administration,” observes 
Tournon, u will surprise those who imagine that in the 
Papal states every thing is left to the will or caprice of 
the government,” and it certainly is a “ most remark¬ 
able institution under a despotic government.” Each 
town and village had a municipal council, composed 
of from forty-eight to eighteen members, selected in 
equal proportions from the notables, citizens, and 
farmers, appointed for life ; the vacancies being filled 
up as they occurred, all local measures, improvements, 
roads, came under their cognizance; they made up 
the budget, under the approval of the Pope’s dele¬ 
gate ; they fixed the assessment and audited the ac¬ 
counts ; appointed and paid the subordinate municipal 
officers, police, and schoolmasters, and also the apo¬ 
thecary and surgeon, who received fixed salaries, and 
were obliged to attend the poor gratis. 

The gonfalonieri and six elders were the municipal 
magistrates, who were yearly chosen by the governor 


APPENDIX. 


307 


of the province from a triple list presented to him by 
the council. These communal or municipal administra¬ 
tions, were under the superintendence of a congrega¬ 
tion entitled of good government, (del buon governo;) 
a most significant distinction, independent of the go¬ 
vernment, but composed of cardinals and prelates, 
and presided by a cardinal prefect; and it often sup¬ 
ported the communes, or municipalities, against the 
arbitrariness of the government agents, and even of 
the government itself. 

Fortunately the same author affords us a vivid pic¬ 
ture of the activity these institutions spread through 
the communities, when not counteracted by irresistible 
political or physical causes. 

“ In the hilly region all is life, bustle, and prospe¬ 
rity ; the ground is covered successively by various 
productions, a multitude of trees spread their cool 
shade, the dwellings of the cultivators, scattered along 
the gentle slopes, appear in the centre of gardens and 
orchards ; various branches of manufactures, paper 
mills, iron works, employ part of the population.” 

With respect to equality of taxation, he says, “ On 
examining the papal finances, we were struck by the 
fact of the equal distribution of the public taxation, of 
which the clergy and the nobles have always borne 
their share, in proportion to their properties, like the 
commonest villager—exemptions and privileges, which 
in other countries have engendered so much hostility 
against these classes, have been for ages unknown to 
papal Rome.” 

This equal distribution of taxation can only refer to 
taxation'falling on property. 

This is again supported by the statement of the 

x 2 


308 


APPENDIX. 


revenue of the states south of the Appeneines. In 
1808, of a total of 3,576,000 scudi, customs form an 
item of 318,000, or less than 10 per cent. 

But this system was unfortunately swallowed up in 
the general centralization of the French empire, which 
with unsparing hand overthrew both good and bad. 

Many reasons conspired to preserve for a long time 
the municipal organization in Spain and Portugal. 
There the Roman law had been engrafted on the 
Saracenic institutions ; there also the customs of our 
Gothic ancestors had never been frozen into feudalism. 
The municipalities may be traced by indubitable signs 
in the early history of the Peninsula, simple, unas¬ 
suming, and passing the rural and agricultural cha¬ 
racters. But unfortunately Spain and Portugal did 
not escape “ the whirlpool of European politics.” 
What metaphor can more truly characterise a cen¬ 
tralized administration ? 

In France, at this very moment, the experiment is 
about to be made. The question there rests on pe¬ 
culiar grounds. There alone, and for the first time, 
will the municipal organization be arrived at, as an 
a priori and theoretical question. Turgot, Necker, 
&c. have placed the discussion on high argumenta¬ 
tive grounds, but I think they are far from anticipa¬ 
ting all the positive good that that system can effect, 
and look to it only as a preventive for the errors of 
legislators and the violence of functionaries; but 
although it seems impossible for France long to go on 
without a single provincial institution, to attach men 
to their soil, yet 1 cannot look forward to any system 
efficient in its simplicity, as the municipal organization 
must be, emanating from the minutest interest and 


APPENDIX. 


309 


large theories that strive in the central administration 
of France. 

To trace these bodies in our ancient history., and 
among the historical and legal antiquities of not only 
the Teutonic, but the Tartar, Sclavonic, Celt, and 
other tribes, becomes a most interesting research when 
one has observed their living vigour, and their prac¬ 
tical connexion with so many important administrative 
questions. The coincidences assume, as instances are 
multiplied, the most perfect order, and in proportion 
to their vigour invariably is prosperity and content¬ 
ment to be found; they are sufficiently independent 
of higher political combinations to exist under abso¬ 
lute monarchies, republics, and theocracies, solacing 
the oppressed, restraining the turbulent, not changing 
indeed the political condition of man, but subject to 
those connditions, elevating his character, increasing 
his sympathies, and husbanding his resources—be¬ 
stowing some cherished rights on the victims of East¬ 
ern despotism, or of papal tyranny, and tutoring the 
Bedouin of the desert, and the free mountaineer 
of Switzerland into enjoying their freedom without 
licentiousness, and their power without turbulence. 



310 


APPENDIX. 


While this volume has been passing through the 
press, the possibility of a revision of our financial 
system has become a prominent subject of public in¬ 
quiry, and leads me to add some further observations 
on the connexion of our ancient system with that of 
Turkey, and their actual contrast. 

I feel convinced that the information which a few 
leading questions would elicit from any intelligent 
Turkish raya, would be more important for the prac¬ 
tical understanding of the subject than volumes of 
mere argument, for this reason—that although it is 
under specific heads of taxation that the Turkish go¬ 
vernment fixes the general amount of revenue, and 
regulates the proportion of each district: yet each dis¬ 
trict, nay, each village, has full liberty to settle ac¬ 
cording to its best judgment, and to alter as often as 
it thinks fit the mode and object of assessment; and 
not only is their attention unremittingly devoted to as¬ 
certaining the best means of adjusting taxation to 
property, but also to the means of relieving property 
from direct burdens, by appropriating to the revenue 
profits arising from any particular or exclusive com¬ 
mercial or agricultural advantage possessed by the 
community.* Whilst, therefore, taxation appears to 
us a dry, exclusive, and technical study, it is amongst 
them a domestic question, subject to daily experience, 

* At Ambelakia taxes were defrayed from the profits of the com¬ 
mercial firm. So, in the state of New York, some successful spe¬ 
culations, undertaken by the community, with municipal funds, has 
almost entirely relieved the state from contributions for local expen¬ 
diture. 



APPENDIX. 


311 


discussion, and experiment; and this information is 
spread through the whole population, who apply to 
the inquiry the same interested anxiety and practical 
intelligence, which make men generally succeed in 
the management of their private affairs. 

By the opportunities I have had of observing this 
system in operation, I am inclined to think, that a 
property tax, abandoned thus to the public judgment 
of each locality, is an impost, the equality of which is 
even exceeded by its facility of collection. It may be 
supposed that such a tax would require an enormous 
force for its collection; but in practice it does not 
appear so. First, freedom of exchange increases the 
resources whence revenue is drawn; secondly, mu¬ 
nicipal collection engages the most influential men in 
the assessment and collection, and therefore public 
opinion enforces it; if indeed we look at home, we may 
see that the full force and utmost rigour of the law is 
required at present, for enforcing the payment of the 
small portion of direct revenue that is superadded to 
our customs, excise ; and in America, force, and even 
the threat of arms, are necessary to enforce, even 
for their small revenue, the collection of customs; 
so much so, that their practice is fast treading on the 
heels of the opinion that has been slowly making its 
way amongst them, that “ direct taxation on property, 
assessed and collected by elective officers, is the only 
impost worthy of a free people/’ # 

Yet, notwithstanding the antithesis of England at 
this moment to Turkey, with respect to the objects of 
taxation, and the mode of collection, there was a time 
when the principles of both were identical; and with- 
* Maclure’s Opinions on various Subjects, vol. i. p. 429. 


312 


APPENDIX. 


out going back to the British or the Anglo-Saxon pe¬ 
riods, we shall find the municipal system united with 
freedom of commerce and direct taxation, in the ori¬ 
ginal constitution and practice of the present burghs 
and cities of England. 

The term feudal has of late been, perhaps, impro¬ 
perly applied to the political state of Tartars, Raj¬ 
poots, and other eastern populations, because our 
ideas of feudalism have reference chiefly to the tenure 
of land, and to the laws which have grown out of that 
proprietory system. Now, in the East, the political 
structure, which it has been the fashion to compare 
with that of our Norman ancestors, never affected the 
tenure of land. The resemblance, it is true, is per¬ 
fect in the higher portions, but the basis is wholly 
different. The knight, under either system, held for 
military services of his lord, the mediate lord of the 
suzerain. Reliefs, fines, feudal incidents, and feudal 
habits, may be traced in each; but the difference lay 
in this, that our knight, or lord, was absolute owner 
or possessor of the land, whether his tenure was by 
the year, by will, for life, or in succession. In the 
East the military fief was not understood possession 
of the soil, but of one-tenth of the fruit of the soil; 
for which consideration, the knight, or lord (spahi,) 
was not only held to perform military service, but 
also to 'protect the cultivators. Such, moreover, is 
the principle in Turkey at present; indeed, it is 
considered as binding a duty to protect the peasant 
who pays spahilic, as to acquit the debt contracted to 
the merchant. It is singular to find preserved in 
Turkey the record of the useful and the expedient on 
which alone this, as all other customs, has been ori- 


APPENDIX. 


313 


finally established. The cultivator there has ever 
retained the indefeasible right fof property, which 
was as uncontrollably his, according to the allegoric 
terms of their law, as that of the blade of grass to the 
earth from which it springs. For the understanding 
of the institutions, the history, the abuses, and the 
practicable remedies, applicable to Turkey, or to India, 
it is necessary to be duly impressed with this prin¬ 
ciple, consecrated alike by its antiquity, its justice, 
and utility. 

The land seems in all countries to have directly 
borne the weight of taxation, until the feudal tenure 
distinguished agriculture from commerce; and uniting 
landed interests with military service, those interested 
in agriculture, who, under all other systems, were 
the oppressed and plundered portion of the com¬ 
munity, became the plunderers of the rest. 

During the first stage of feudalism, however, the 
land bore exclusively all burdens of the state, under 
the charge of the trinoda necessitas , and as service 
of the various holders. The second stage of our na¬ 
tional progress may be marked by the necessity for 
the assessment of the money-commutation for ser¬ 
vice, of assembling, under the Norman dynasty. Par¬ 
liaments, which were the revival of our Anglo- 
Saxon Witenagemot, the grand representation of the 
rural municipalities. 

These had originally been composed of small 
landed proprietors, and the classification and sub¬ 
division was strictly territorial and numerical, as that 
of Turkey, or Hindostan. Not so the municipalities 
that sprung from feudalism, which are perpetuated in 
the existing burghs, and which were so completely 


314 


APPENDIX. 


contradistinguished from their predecessors, as to be 
especially exempted from suit at the county and 
hundred courts, which were the remnants of the 
municipal district councils of the Anglo-Saxons. 

The military leaders being landed proprietors, ex¬ 
cept when at open variance, would generally abstain 
from indiscriminate plunder of the cultivators of each 
other’s soil; it is not likely that they would show 
equal favour to traders. But for their particular ad¬ 
vantage we find them in every district granting charters 
to burghs, to protect traders from the tolls, dues, 
fees, and customs, which had succeeded to indiscri¬ 
minate plunder. These charters were not, however, 
granted gratuitously, but freedom of commerce was 
purchased by tribute; that is to say, instead of the 
indirect taxes which they formerly paid, the burgh 
system established a property tax. Not only the 
most unequivocal and reciprocal advantage was re¬ 
quisite to lead to the establishment of these burghs 
throughout the whole country, but also was it neces¬ 
sary that that advantage should be apparent to all; 
so it was—and so it would be to us now, if the cus¬ 
toms exacted at our frontier were exacted on the 
confines of each county. 

The indirect taxes of the burghs were replaced by 
fee-farms, or fixed commutation; and the borough 
elected, or (to use a word, the sense of which our 
prejudices have not perverted) chose a bailiff to hold 
this farm, or levy this tax; just as in Greece, when 
Capodistrias converted the tithes into farms, many 
of the districts proposed to purchase the farms for the 
community, which Capodistrias prevented, by sub¬ 
jecting the former to so fearful a responsibility, that 


APPENDIX. 3J5 

no one, except his own immediate supporters, would 
venture on taking them. 

When the general assessment of the nation was 
settled, the tallage, or property tax of the burghs, 
was permanently fixed at one-half more than that 
of the barons; and it 64 was collected and rated 
most commonly by the inhabitants (I suppose ) among 
themselves.The absence of detail on the mode of 
collection, joined with the fact of direct tribute being 
collected, and a general assessment being fixed, 
can scarcely leave a doubt of the existence of the 
municipal organization in these burghs in all its 
purity, as its purity must be in exact proportion, 
first, to its utility—and what can be greater than the 
adjustment and collection of taxes? and secondly, to 
the absence of legislation, which never can increase 
its efficiency, may hamper its free-will, and is a pre¬ 
sumptive proof of its having been interfered with. 
Thus, these urban municipalities were perfectly 
identical with those of Turkey and the East in their 
individual character ; but with this general and im¬ 
portant difference—that they were unconnected with 
the soil on which they were placed. Composed of 
men who had broken their bonds, who lived by their 
ingenuity and were instructed by traffic and by 
travel, and who, therefore, depended on their su¬ 
perior dexterity and knowledge for their independent 
existence, these burghs soon shot far a-head of their 
age and country on the tide of civilization; and in¬ 
deed no period of the history of man can afford in¬ 
stances of grander political results, if these are to be 
estimated by general wealth, prosperity, and content- 
* Brady’s Treatise on English Burghs, p. 82. 


316 


APPENDIX. 


ment. Little harmonizing, however, with the general 
government in which they were included, their pros¬ 
perity was not of long duration, and did not sur¬ 
vive the freedom—or, if I might so say, the simple 
common sense of the municipal organization, when 
that had been perverted either by republican vio¬ 
lence, or by military despotism. The cousin and 
historian of a German emperor, speaking of the 
commercial municipalities of Italy, expresses himself 
thus: — “ They are so much attached to liberty, that 
they prefer the office of consul^ to riches. To re¬ 
press pride, the consuls are chosen from all classes 
promiscuously; and to check ambition, the election is 
annual; hence they excel in wealth and power all 
cities in the world.In England, the line of demar¬ 
cation between the burghs and the rest of the 
country, seems not to have been so strongly drawn 
as on the continent; the soccage tenure, which had 
survived the introduction of feudalism, gave the 
burghers some interest in the soil ; hence, perhaps, 
is it that they never came to the possession of such 
astonishing wealth and power as many across the 
Channel; hence also, perhaps, were feelings of inde¬ 
pendence communicated to the whole nation, which 
at that time, with the exception of the Peninsula, 
have no parallel in any other European state. 


* The consuls were the deacons of the crafts who formed the 
municipal council; even the scaffingers had their consuls ; the mer¬ 
chants, in a fleet or vessel, or at a foreign port, elected a chief or 
consul; this latter officer, not called to sit in the council, has alone 
retained the functions and the name of the ancient municipal 
deacons. 

f Otho de Gest. Fred. p. 426. 


APPENDIX. 


317 


Such was the constitution of our ancient burghs, 
when, by foreign war, the increased expenses of the 
state rendered it necessary to assemble the chiefs 
of the burghs to persuade them to increase their 
rates. The great landed proprietors answered 
for themselves, the clergy for themselves ; but how 
did these municipalities intervene ? Each sent bur¬ 
gesses to Parliament to represent it, charged with 
instructions and with certain delegated powers, on 
the authority of which they made engagements for 
their community.* And so much more essential was 
this entrusted authority than their individual vote, 
that Edward the First, in one of his summonses to 
Parliament, cautions them not to come to the assem¬ 
bly without the requisite powers; so that “ pro 
defectu potest atis hujusmodi negotium infectum non 
remanecit” 

I need but refer to what I have said, pp. 17, 18, 
respecting the principle of representation in the 
Turkish municipalities, to bear out this coincidence 
between them and our English boroughs; and to 
p. 65, for the similarity of the powers entrusted to 


* The election of the member of parliament by the corporation, 
the municipal character of the member of parliament, the necessity 
of express powers for voting taxes, may be traced in charters from 
Doomsday Book, and the summonses of Edward I., published by 
Dr. Brady :—“ Alderrnanni et burgenses dicti burgi—habeant et 
haberunt auctoritatem, potestatem et facultatem, elegendi et nomi- 
nandi unum discretum virum, fore burgensem Parliamenti nostri,” 
&c.—P. 40. 

“ Plenam et sufficientem potestatem pro se et communitate habeant 
(milites et langeuses) ad faciendum tunc quod de communi concilio 
ordinabitur in prsemissis.”—P. 54. 

Again :—“ Cum plena potestate pro se et communitate ad consu- 
lendum et consentiendum pro se et communitati ilia.” 


318 


APPENDIX. 


our early members for the boroughs, and the deputies 
to the national assembly in Greece ; but this prin¬ 
ciple, common to the whole community there, was 
restricted amongst us to the weakest portion of it; 
and it is to this want of uniformity, that perhaps the 
introduction of indirect taxation, through the per¬ 
version of the municipal spirit amongst us, is to 
be attributed. 

One more point of resemblance I have yet to point 
out. Under the Mussulman system, when objections 
were made to taxes, it was always as, of course, to 
the amount, not to the mode; and when taxes were 
augmented, it was by adding one fortieth or two 
fortieths : so in our early parliaments they discussed 
whether they should give one fifteenth or half a fif¬ 
teenth ; and when parliaments began to lay imposts 
on commerce, it was, in the same way, so many pence 
in the pound. 

At first the taxes imposed were all direct—tallage, 
hidage, land-tax, hearth-tax, poll-tax, poll-tax on 
sheep ; and under Henry IV. an income-tax on annui¬ 
ties, pensions, &c.: the clergy at that time taxing their 
possessions and benefices in convocation. The first 
tax on commerce was imposed under Edward I.; it 
was subsequently increased; and under Henry V. 
customs, excise, &c. had so much increased, that of a 
revenue of 55,000/. of money of that day, they formed 
10,000/. At present, of a revenue of 50,000,000/., 
they amount to 45,000,000/. ! 

The local burdens on commerce had led, by mutual 
consent of the payers and receivers, to the substitu¬ 
tion of fee-farms and tallage, to tolls peage, stallage, 
lastage, and all other duties and customs whatever 
which affected commerce; and for the purpose of 


APPENDIX. 


319 


local and individual protection against these indirect 
imports, the burghs, by individual exceptions, became 
the means of emancipating the whole commerce of the 
kingdom. At the present moment the burden of tax¬ 
ation having, not as formerly in part, but nearly in 
totality, slipped from land and capital, on the ex¬ 
change of the produce of the land and capital, or on 
commerce, it seems natural that the same mutual 
interests would lead us, as formerly, to return to the 
original standard; but formerly the full bearings of 
the question came within the field of view of each 
individual. At present this is not the case; and the 
operation of the gigantic whole is concealed from the 
close observer by the immediate detail. 

The history of the city of London furnishes a fair 
illustration of the relative intelligence of our an¬ 
cestors and ourselves on these matters : the first ex¬ 
ercise of power of the extended constituency was to 
pledge their members to the repeal of the assessed 
taxes, their principal reasons for which were the in¬ 
equality of their pressure, their vexatious nature, 
and the depressed state of trade. While repudiating 
the assessed taxes, they invoked a property tax, not 
perceiving that assessed taxes are a species of pro¬ 
perty tax.* The inequality of pressure and inquisi¬ 
torial nature are objections to the mode of collection, 
not to the tax. The depressed state of trade which 
incapacitated them from supporting the burdens of 
the state, would have been an argument with people 
more practically acquainted with taxation for eman¬ 
cipating trade from its burdens: and instead of 

* By property tax I mean tax on property in general, as distin¬ 
guished from tax on exchange. 


320 


APPENDIX. 


their earliest and most strenuous efforts being directed 
to effecting this, they were exerted for the suppression 
of the only tax which increases the public revenue 
by the whole amount (minus collection) that is paid 
by the people. 

But if we turn back to the opinions of the citizens 
of London a few hundred years ago, we shall find 
very different views then prevailing; nor do we then 
find the community divided by conflicting opinions. 

The privileges of the burghs or cities were, as I have 
already stated, unlimited freedom of commerce,and its 
entire emancipation from fees, dues, or customs, in 
consideration for which immunities, a property-tax 
was raised by them;* but in so convulsed a history as 
ours, we must not expect to find the peaceful burghers 
in constant possession of their rights. We find under 
Edward III., the citizens of London complaining, just 
as at the present day, of burdens heavier than they 
could bear, and of their inability to support, under 
such circumstances, the weight of taxation. Their 
opinions on the subject have been recorded in a peti¬ 
tion f of the whole body to the king in council, in 
which they expose their sufferings and suggest mea¬ 
sures of relief. It sets forth, that the citizens of Lon¬ 
don “ have nothing to live on save their industry and 
franchise, (free trade,) upon which franchise the said 
city was founded, and by reason of which franchise, 
they were wont to travel by land and sea, in various 

* That no doubt may remain on this point, I quote the words of 
Dr. Brady. “ A free burgh, or city, was only a town of free trad¬ 
ing, without paying tolls, passage, and free from fines, &c.; and a 
free burgess was no other than a man that exercised free trade.”— 
Treatise on Burghs, p. 100. 

f Ibid. p. 107. 


APPENDIX. 


321 


countries for their profit ; by which travel, they used 
to bring divers merchandise, to the great common 
profit of the whole realm of England, to the great 
aid and sustenance of the said city, sustenance and 
increase of the navy (shipping) of the said land.” But 
their franchises or freedom of trade having been en¬ 
croached on in various ways, “ they pray that the king 
would please to have regard and take notice, that the 
said city was founded on such franchises, without 
which they could not maintain the city> nor hear the 
taxes and other burdens as they were wont to do f 
and they conclude with this remarkable prayer, worthy 
of being written in letters of gold, “ that all such 
grants and confirmations of franchises may be made 
to all other burghs and cities of the realm .”* 


* “ That foreign commerce is eminently conducive to the wealth 
and prosperity of a country, &c. 

“ That freedom from restraint is calculated to give the utmost 
extension to foreign trade, and the best direction to the industry and 
capital of the country. 

“ That unfortunately a policy the very reverse of this, has been 
adopted and acted on by the government of this and every other 
country. 

That in thus declaring as your petitioners do, their conviction 
of the impolicy and injustice of the restrictive system, and in desir¬ 
ing every practicable relaxation of it, they have in view only such 
parts of it as are not connected, or only subordinately so, with the 
public revenue. As long as the necessity for the present amount of re¬ 
venue subsists, your petitioners cannot expect so important a branch 
of it as the customs, to be given up or diminished, unless some sub¬ 
stitute less objectionable be found .”—Petition to Parliament of the 
Merchants of the City of London , presented May 8, 1820. 

This petition, remarkable as the harbinger of sounder views 
among mercantile men, is still but a meagre comment on the equally 
concise and conclusive observations of the petition in the text. 

Y 


322 


APPENDIX. 


The arguments here used by the trading citizens 
of London at that period, are just such as might be 
urged in any agricultural village of Turkey against 
the late attempts at introducing new customs there— 
that it would render them unable to pay their taxes 
and their debts. 

The practicability or impracticability of introduc¬ 
ing a property tax into England, is an application of 
the present question perfectly irrelevant to the sub¬ 
ject matter: not so the opinions that may be enter- 
tertained on that head, because having founded in 
a great measure my hope of regeneration of Turkey 
on her corporations and her property tax, my conclu¬ 
sions will, of course, appear unwarranted and un¬ 
sound to those who attach to those terms, the mean¬ 
ing which the recent history of England would sug¬ 
gest. In common justice to my subject, I must dis¬ 
claim such an interpretation; the property and in¬ 
come-tax in England were not substituted for cus¬ 
toms and excise, but superimposed on these when 
stretched to the extremest point; so that instead of 
being a relief from high prices and high wages, the 
pressure of the one system was added to the inequa¬ 
lity of the other. And, besides this, the collection was 
through government agents, which would render the 
slightest and the justest tax obnoxious, and which 
succeeded in fixing die most odious character on this 
in itself overwhelming burden. 

Still I am far from denying, that under certain un¬ 
happy conditions, indirect taxation may have a ten¬ 
dency to extort popular liberties from despotic go¬ 
vernments. Direct taxation, when municipally collect¬ 
ed, places enormous power in the hands of the general 


APPENDIX. 


323 


government; but when in the fulness of its irresponsi¬ 
bility, the government proceeds to interfere with the 
collection, direct taxation, w hich had cemented under 
the first condition the politic body, under the second 
loses all its parts and breaks it in pieces. But no 
despotism can carry indirect taxation to this extreme 
point, because the indirect mode seems entirely the 
offspring of a struggle of powerful interests, which 
cannot co-exist with despotic authority. No despo¬ 
tism would ever for a moment dream of introducing 
so ridiculously cumbersome a mode of collection. 
And then, when this system is carried too far, the 
smuggler steps in to redress impolitic laws, and ac¬ 
quires in their violation a spirit of daring adventure, 
which has at times contributed both to civil liberty and 
to national independence. I conceive, therefore, that 
there is no paradox in saying, that the taxation of 
property is the sole cause of the permanency of that 
empire, while the property taxation of England was 
the worst and most obnoxious that could be devised ; 
not from any difference in the applicability of the tax 
to the two countries, but from the difference in its 
application ; because, besides the question of muni¬ 
cipal and government collection, it must be borne in 
mind, that a property-tax can only be negatively be¬ 
neficial in emancipating industry and exchange; if the 
property-tax is superimposed on those burdens, or if 
it does not form the whole revenue, that negative but 
all-important advantage is sacrificed. 

It requires but to look at the powers which it is 
necessary to grant to the commissioners for taxes, to 
be convinced of the unpopularity in this country of 
direct taxation~of that very species of taxation, which 


324 


APPENDIX. 


called the burgh system into existence, and for which 
the citizens of London have so unequivocally marked 
their affection, by the prayer of the above quoted 
petition. But how was this tax collected at that 
period? in the burghs by elected bailiffs, in the coun¬ 
ties general collectors were appointed for four or 
five counties, and took with them the elected sheriffs 
of each. But the corruption of the municipal system; 
led gradually to the extension of the power of the 
collectors, and direct taxation in their hands led to 
continual disturbances and insurrections The re¬ 
sistance by which they were so often met, might be 
proved by the necessity of conferring upon them au¬ 
thority to deal in the most summary manner both 
with men’s persons and their property ;* and the 
collectors have been clothed with power, extra-ma¬ 
gisterial and extra-judiciary, even when their office 
was so odious, that it was found necessary to place 
them without the pale of citizenship.f 

The collectors, even under the despotic govern¬ 
ments of France, Spain, &c., while they retained the 


* In the several acts of parliament for land-taxes, power is given 
“ to the collectors thereof, in case of non-payment, to levy by dis¬ 
tress and sale of goods and chattels, or distraint upon the mes¬ 
suages, lands, and tenements.” 

“ If any person or persons shall neglect or refuse to pay their 
assessment by the space of ten days after the demand, any two 
of the commissioners are hereby authorized to commit such per¬ 
son or persons (except a peer or peeress of Great Britain) to the 
common goal, there to remain without bail or mainprize, until pay¬ 
ment is made of the money assessed and the charges of bringing in 
the same.” 

■f 1 allude to the act disqualifying collectors to vote for members 
of parliament. 


APPENDIX. 


325 


Roman municipal law, were men individually known 
and respected,* as their yearly election proves, and 
supported in their functions by common interests and 
public opinion, required not to be backed by the seve¬ 
rity of legal penalties. A.nd as I have already stated, 
when and where the municipal organization existed, 
we find the laws of the most confiding mildness with 
respect to taxation and to debt; while the person was 
free from arrest, neither lands, nor tenements, tools, 
implements, or necessary clothing, could be distrain¬ 
ed. Yet these were the laws of absolute, arbitrary, 
and despotic governments. In England, on the con¬ 
trary, our laws, whether good or bad, have ema¬ 
nated neither from arbitrary will, nor from des¬ 
potic authority. Whence then their singular and 
revolting severity ? Whence this strange contrast 
of a mild code emanating from a despotism, and a 
cruel and unmerciful code emanating from a free and 
representative government? The compact and self- 
adjusting mechanism of the municipal organization 
was put in motion by the slightest impulse—the 
extensive, cumbersome, and ill-adjusted machinery of 
centralized collection, could only be moved by violent 
and dangerous efforts. 

It is a very prevailing opinion in this country, that 
high prices are a consequence of heavy burdens, 
and that the expenses of living are dearer in this 

* A particular distinction is drawn between the collector of 
customs and excise., who farmed his office, and the collector of per¬ 
sonal and real taxes, or property-tax, who was elective; respecting 
the first the Paudects say, “ quantae audaciae, quantae temeritatis sint 
publicanorum functiones, nemo est qui nesciat.”—L. 12, If. de Pabt. 
Vectig et Comm; respecting the second, “ exigendi tributi munus, 
inter sordida muncra non habetur.” 17 sect. 7 if. ad municip. 


326 


APPENDIX. 


country than in any other part of the world, in con¬ 
sequence of the demands of the state. To this opinion 
Turkey gives a practical contradiction. In Greece, 
before the revolution, the Turks, or the Turkish go¬ 
vernment, absorbed two-thirds of the profits of the 
country, and I dare say I shall not be contradicted 
in supposing, that the Greek peasant had to bear 
six times as heavy burdens as the English artizan,* 
and did support this burden without the necessity of 
poor houses, because his labour was never employed 
but when it was productive—because he could dis¬ 
pose of his produce in the best market he could find 
—because he had the world open for his supply, and 
could purchase the produce of every portion of the 
globe, at the lowest price at which commerce could 
furnish it. 

* In Turkey the simplicity of the system, permits one at once to 
see how much taxes really amount to, but it is difficult, if not im¬ 
possible, to ascertain their amount (as paid) in England. However, to 
arrive at some approximate comparison, I have taken the items of a 
family’s expenditure for necessaries, amounting to £150 per annum, 
and calculating the price of each article at the price in the country 
where it is to be procured cheapest; as bread at Dantzic, tea and 
sugar at Gibraltar, and I have found the market value of the articles 
which cost £150 to be £50, the two-thirds additional price, created 
by indirect taxation benefited the government to the extent of £16, 
or less than one-sixth of what it cost the purchasers, the remainder 
being absorbed by the reaction of tax on tax, and price on price, 
and by the necessity thus created of additional mercantile ex¬ 
penses, risks, per centage and profits. But supposing that vio¬ 
lence in Turkey, as laws in England, absorb two-thirds of the profits 
of the mere operative, there is still this difference in favour of the 
Turkish raya, which saves him from the condition of pauperism, 
that these two-thirds are taken from his actual realized profit, and 
not anticipated on the price of his food. 


APPENDIX. 


327 


But if the question of price is important as regards 
our internal relations, what does it not become 
when applied to our external commerce? America, 
France, Germany, have the advantage against us 
of lower prices. We have it in our power, not only 
to deprive them of that advantage, but to render 
England the cheapest country on the face of the earth. 
What nation then could compete with 11 s ; what fiscal 
barriers attempt to exclude our cheapened produce; 
what limits be placed to our prosperity, or our com¬ 
merce? Our competitors would become our tributaries, 
to their own advantage as well as ours; every market 
of the globe would be supplied with those manufac¬ 
tures in which we excel; and it would not, I trust, 
under these altered circumstances, be too much to 
anticipate, that every field which the sun looks on, 
and that is fattened by the sweat of man, would in some 
degree have its productiveness increased in furnish¬ 
ing the means to purchase the produce of the looms 
of England. 

A native of the Barbary coast, devotedly attached 
to the Arabic principles of taxation and free trade, 
during the agitation of the reform bill, was in the 
greatest anxiety for fear of its miscarriage. Being 
questioned as to his particular interest in the measure, 
he made this remarkable reply: “ All your discon¬ 
tent arises from your taxing foreign commerce, which 
is the surplus and regulator of your internal com¬ 
merce. This oppresses you in a hundred ways, 
which you feel without seeing, but which are quite 
evident to those who have been brought up under a 
different system. Reform is a change: if it is lost 
you remain stationary—if gained you will expect 


328 


APPENDIX. 


benefit from it; but you will never obtain any till 
you knock down your custom-houses^ and make peo¬ 
ple contribute to the state as they do to the support 
of their families ; that is^ by the profits of their indus¬ 
try or capital. You ask me what benefit the measure 
that leads to this result can be to me? Only this, 
that I look to the increased activity of your commerce 
as the means of civilizing Africa.” I have faith in 
the prophecy of this enlightened Mussulman, and be¬ 
lieve its application universal. 


THE END. 


LONDON: 

IBOTSON AND PALMER, PRINTERS, SAVOY STREET, STRAND. 



































































